Biography

Michel Dusariez was born in 1938 in Brussels, where he still lives. In 1959
he qualified as an Optician Optometrist at the Centre for Applied Optical
Science.

He has been doing 360° panoptic photography since 1989.

In 1996 he received the DE BOELPAEPE prize from the ROYAL ACADEMY OF
BELGIUM - Science Class - for his work in 360° panoptic stereoscopic
photography. He was invited to participate in and make a presentation to
ELECTRONIC IMAGING - STEREOSCOPIC DISPLAY AND VIRTUAL REALITY at SAN JOSE, CA, USA in February 1997.

Michel DUSARIEZ demonstrated his technical progression ( 10 prototypes ) -
Cameras he made himself, at the PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUM of CHARLEROI Belgium - February/March 1997. He organised the first EUROMEETING of the
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHERS in Brussels in 1996.
He was appointed life member of the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHERS ( IAPP ) USA in 1997. He published two books in French and in English, in collaboration with others: "KITE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY" and "EXPERIMENTS IN 360° PANOPTIC PHOTOGRAPHY". He illustrates the weekly photographic chronicle "PANORAMIC PORTRAIT" in the Belgian daily newspaper "LE SOIR" ( more than 180 photographs published to date, full page, series still ongoing )

In 1985 he founded and was president of the KITE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
WORLDWIDE ASSOCIATION - FOUNDATION ( KAPWA ). This association has more than 500 practising members throughout the world. He participated in a
collective exhibition in 1996 at the POLARIS gallery in Brussels.

He was invited to Tokyo JAPAN in 1989 and 1992 for two exhibitions and
conferences.

He was appointed official photographer by the Cultural Centre of Brabant
Wallon - summer 1999, for a series on the railway stations of the region.

He participated in the exhibition BRUSSELS, (a city ) in photographs at the
Brussels Botanic Gardens as part of Brussels 2000, with 3 large size
panoramic photographs.

From august 16 to september15, 2000, ISELP, 30, boulevard de Waterloo at B-1000 Brussels showed a new series of panoptic images realized, Boulevard Albert II in Brussels where contemporary works of art are definitively implanted in the urbanistic landscape.

Michel DUSARIEZ
14, avenue Capitaine PIRET, B-1150 Bruxelles

Tel : 02 771 04 24

E-mail dusariez@pano360.org

Michel DUSARIEZ
UNLIMITED FIELDS RESEARCH PANOPTIC IMAGING
KITE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY WORDWIDE ASSOCIATION - FOUNDATION
14, Avenue Capitaine PIRET
B-1150 BRUXELLES - BELGIUM
Fax 32 2 512 68 29

DUSARIEZ, THE PHOTOGRAPHER WHO TRANSFIGURES THE BANAL

A first photo exhibition is always exciting for an artist. All the same, at
over 60 years old, Michel Disariez isn't exactly a beginner.... even if
his laughing eyes and youthful grin make him look 15 years younger! A
trained optician-optometrist, Michel sells specs on the chaussee d'Ixelles.
That's the obvious side of his personality. The other side is a clever
handyman, an imaginative artist who is exibiting his pictures, for the
first time alone, in the Gallery of the ISELP Institute.

All in all, the man started out modestly. At the end of the 70's, he was
experimenting with kite aerial photography. He founded a club for amateurs
and published amagazine and a book on the subject. Fun but not enough to
satisfy his thirst for innovation! 360? photography followed, creating
enthusiasm such as in the "Le Soir" newspaper which decided to publish his
photos every Monday in the panoramic portrait column entitled: "Brussels,
no maybe". But all inventors are insatiable; kite photographs in 360°, in
3D and 360° followed .......

The next experiment is 360° underwater photography. The prototype is ready,
smiles Michel. But for me, once the technical challenge has been overcome,
I have to go further; the technical aspects must remain the means to
artistic creation! Panoramic photography reveals a new aspect of objects.
Look at Tapta for example, says the artist as he points out a picture of
the sculpture on the boulevard Albert II. You never see it in this way
whenever you go past it. With panoramic photography, I put things back in
their context, with a different way of seeing.

In fact, we are sometimes surprised when looking at the urban landscapes of
the capital after they have been treated by this inventor-photographer.The
everyday things that seem dull and boring to the busy city dweller, turn
out to be strange, beautiful or fun in 360°. The result is even more
spectacular in 360° and 3D. Michel Dusariez has received a prize for this
from the Royal Academy of Belgium, science category.

If you call in to see this exhibition, think about your pose: during the
opening on Wednesday evening, the man in question could not resist. Being
careful not to attract attention, he took a little camera out of his
pocket, prepared it, and set it on a very small tripod. Watch the birdie!
the camera turned around on itself and took the whole film in a few
seconds: that was that, we were all recorded for posterity.

AURORE D'HAEYER

Published in the newspaper "LE SOIR" of August 18, 2000.


Panoramic Conversation or 25 years of turning around.

Michel Dusariez: Since 1986, I have been interested in photographs taken
with Cirkut cameras, which are large format panoramic cameras dating back
to the beginning of the century, of which many are still in service,
especially in the United States.

I started my own exploits in panoptic photography with a transformed Rollei
35 ( April 1987) the reasonable results of which encouraged me to
persevere. The way the technical inventor's mind works, means that he is
in constant need of efficient tools and materials and has to do with the
available means

And the constant doubt as to whether he will succeed often means that he
reluctant to invest - an cruel dilemma.

A trip to Japan in 1989 with a view to demonstrate the advantages in the
use of kites for aerial photography, (1979) and the fact that I met Hideaki
Sato, amateur builder of panoramic cameras confirmed me in my intentions.

The first results gave me negatives of 250 mm x 24 mm which I thought were
far too long, and I decided to go on to build a prototype based on a single
use Fuji with a 25 mm lens which gives me negatives of 157 mm x 24 mm. The
length/height ratio was improved, but still too long for my taste. This
camera was named "Rubbish" (1989) because it was made from scrap parts only
and it works quite well.

I then came upon the ides of a non-definitive transformation of a modern
SLR camera.

Cameras with an interchangeable back make it possible to construct a
panoptical interchangeable back system with two interchangeable motors for
two different speeds.

The focal length chosen, was deliberately very short with a view to
reducing the negative length. This gives a negative of 106 mm x 24 mm. We
reduce the length/height ratio. The camera body itself undergoes no changes
and can still be used normally.

At this point in time, I meet the Dane Lars R. Larsen who had already been
exploring panoptical photography ( 1970).

Lars R Larsen: I had built my first almost panoptical camera (350°) in 1970
with the intention to make panoramas of buildings and interiors. The
prototype was built from an alarm clock casing with an internal diameter of
90 mm (2 x the focal length of the lens 45 mm) which gave me negatives of
the very unhandy length of abt 270 mm with a height of
24 mm. after a few successful takes, I abandoned the project, but luckily,
I kept the camera.

When twenty years later, I met Michel, his system appealed to me, but at
the time, I had neither a camera with interchangeable back, nor did I have
a 17 mm lens. I wanted to use a 21 mm which I have, and I came upon the
idea to let the camera turn around a fixed rubber disc the diameter of
which is twice the focal length of the lens. I built the system around a
6x6 Zeiss Ikon Nettar body, so that I could benefit from the #120 format
with a film of 60 mm.
Four points are worth mentioning here:

1: a lens for a 24x36 SLR, the focal length of which is shorter than
the depth of the camera body is constructed as a retrofocus lens. - the
distance between the lens and film is longer than the focal length - which
in our case gives us room enough for the abovementionned rubber disc.

2: that the picture circle covered by 24x36 lenses is at least equal
to the diagonal of that format, i.e.43 mm. Often it is more and may thus
attain twice the height of the 24 mm of a 35 mm film.

3: that the use of a 17 mm lens gives negatives of 106 mm ( 2 x 17 x
pi) when covering 360°. With a negative height of 48 mm the vertical angle
covered exceeds 100°.

4: that this length of negative makes it possible to use enlargers for
the 9 x 12 cm or 4 x 5".

In the spring of 1991, I built a prototype which I first called
"Rundhorisontkamera" and later renamed "Larscan" (1991) which after a few
improvements gave results that were so convincing that Michel decided to do
at least as well. Using the same system, he very quickly built a very
pretty camera with a 17 mm lens.

Michel Dusariez: Since 1979, I had been doing aerial photography by
kite, so I came upon the idea to make an aerial photography by kite (1992 )
covering 360°. The French seaside town of LE TOUQUET was chosen for this
"World's first" on the 25th April 1992.

As the risk of a crash can never be totally excluded, and as the camera
used could not easily have been replaced, nerves were strained during the
experiment, but fortunately nothing untoward happened.

As the camera for the 120 format takes up quite a lot of space, I got the
idea of creating a smaller, pocket sized model. A further Rollei 35 meets
the hacksaw and the vice and with a 12.5 mm lens (taken from a Kodak Disc)
it gives negatives of 76 x 18 mm, an acceptable length/height ratio. (1994).

This prototype comes with an accessory which makes it possible to change
the rotation ratio (to compensate for the change in refraction index under
water) and a submarine body which permits underwater takes of 360° at any
depth. (1994).

Lars R. Larsen: It was after having seen Michel's "pocket" prototype that I
decided to make something neater in a Praktica point and shoot body using
the motorised film advance system of the camera itself. This lightweight
camera can easily be carried by kite and with radio remote control, it
gives excellent aerial photographs.

Michel Dusariez: I simply had to make a further conversion. This time of an
Olympus Mµ. (1994) using the original motor drive of the camera. The
outside dimensions corresponding to those of the original camera making it
truly pocketable.

The construction of a 360° camera which simultaneously takes the same scene
from two different points (stereoscopic views) took place, first for the 35
mm format ( 1993) and finally format 120 (1994). The stereoscopic vision is
reestablished with the View Magic viewer from Dimension Press of USA using
the over/under system.

The latest camera of the series, a camera using a Polaroid 4" x 5" film
holder saw the light of the day towards the end of 1996. It makes it
possible to take instantaneous 360° views with a re-useable negative.

Michel Dusariez

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