Faith of the Irish – panorama in 1920s Toronto at St Pat’s
Toronto. As executives, we were often told to consider “the big picture”. Well, in the first half of the last century, that was more than buzzwords! In the day, panorama photos were popular as a means to take groups – schools, organizations, military, religious, etc.
Cameras like the Cirkut used mechanical gears and clockwork motors to turn the camera one way and film the opposite for 180 degrees or more. The prints made by a Cirkut camera negative had a tell-tale curve as the camera and film rotated to scan a flat plane. Fleet-footed wags could appear twice by running from one end of the group to the other.
Other cameras with negatives that had one dimension much greater than the other also made what were called panorama photos. The photo here is the “faith of the Irish” – the congregation outside St Patrick’s in 1920s Toronto. Courtesy of Toronto Past Archive. My thanks to George Dunbar for finding this gem.
