The view from nowhere: Exploring parallel projection in photography

This article details the author’s exploration of alternative perspectives in photography, in particular parallel projections that eliminate the single viewpoint created by a lens. It considers how new imaging technologies such a 3D spatial photography have reopened the question of perspective in the visual arts, making many new types of spatial representation available, through point clouds and the hybrid perspectives now often used in video games. It shows how perspective was known and debated in ancient Greece and demonstrates why it was rejected in both Byzantine and in Chinese art, with which the author discovers a particular affinity.