Jules Spinatsch. Vienna MMIX – 10008/7000

In 2003, Swiss photographic artist Jules Spinatsch launched his Surveillance Panorama Projects. Shot with network cameras—surveillance cameras that take still photos—these works examine human behavior and reveal the sometimes striking discrepancy between social pretense and social reality.

This book documents Vienna MMIX—the fourth installment in Spinatsch’s series—in which the artist trained his lens on the Vienna Opera Ball. At the ball, two cameras moved continuously in a grid pattern, taking photographs every three seconds. Arranged in a single sequence, ten thousand of these photos form a panorama that recreates the entire space while capturing only fragments of events. Volume I shows the images in chronological order as a continuous strip, each page representing one specific minute. Volume II features selected images, each documenting a moment of great intensity, intimacy, or fascination. The two essays in the set's third part explore the phenomenon of human perception and its transition in the age of media and surveillance technology.

The resulting book is both a beautifully produced collection of images and a piercing study of human behavior.

Named one of the most beautiful books of Austria 2014.