Poster

Three years ago, I became aware of a collaborative poster project which made use of a couple of photographs I’d published under a Creative Commons license.

According to the krazy genius who put it all together:

This mosaic was made from 2500 individual photographs of circles, photographed by 542 talented individuals.

The mosaic was constructed algorithmically by Jim Bumgardner using images from the Squared Circle photo pool at Flickr, the photo-blogging website.

Jim was selling these posters at cost. I ordered one and was really knocked out by the quality. So I took it to a shop to get it framed.

Then Katrina hit, and the floodwalls failed, and New Orleans flooded, including the frame shop. To the best of my knowledge that shop never reopened.

Recently I was reminded of the poster, so I took another look at it online, and was touched to discover that back in 2005 Jim was selling autographed copies to raise money for Katrina relief.

I looked in to ordering another copy of the poster, but they had sold out long ago. I didn’t really mind. The Federal Flood taught me not to place too much emphasis on material possessions.

I left a note for Jim, recounting my story, and thanking him for helping the cause. Lo and behold, he had a couple extras sitting in the garage, and he mailed ’em to me, no charge. Thanks, man.

So now I’ve got a beautiful work of art in my office, with a great story behind it.

But I’m not getting it framed during hurricane season.