Eight years. Around 1,600 gigapixels. One archive of the world as it is now.
I’m John — JD — a photographer based in Pasadena, Newfoundland. For the past eight years I’ve been building an archive of gigapixel photographs: single images stitched from dozens, sometimes hundreds, of separate frames, detailed enough that you can take in a whole valley at a glance, then lean in and read a sign on a building across it.
I collect places the way a stamp collector collects stamps — towns, harbours, temples, street corners, the famous and the ordinary — because the ordinary doesn’t stay ordinary. Places change, sometimes overnight. These pictures are how they looked on the day I stood there.
1,600+ Gigapixel Images
Eight years of stitching across Canada, the United States and the UK. Most images are built from 15 to 50 frames; one Saskatoon riverfront panorama took 2,000. Every one of them is a single explorable picture, not a video and not a slideshow.
100,000+ Miles Travelled
From the Rockies to the historic streets of London, and now Newfoundland route by route — the Avalon, the west coast, and the roads between. Every mile goes into the same archive.
800+ Locations Visited
Glacial lakes, mountain peaks, fishing villages, monuments and engineering marvels. If it stands still long enough, it gets photographed — in more detail than the naked eye can take in.
Gigapixel & Ultra High-Resolution Artwork
For an optimal experience, please rotate your phone horizontally.
This is London, seen from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Printed at 300dpi it would run 222 inches wide — and still hold its detail. Don’t take my word for it: zoom in. Then keep zooming. That is what gigapixel means. More of the collection lives on the gigapixel page.
Zoom right in
Every gigapixel here is one photograph you can explore — stand back for the whole scene, then travel into it until you find the detail nobody noticed.
The archive
This is a record as much as a gallery: places photographed as they are now, kept against the day they change.
Paint a photograph
Splash and Dash turns photographs — including mine — into paint-by-numbers you paint on your phone. Finish one, then step inside the real photograph.
Artwork on Display
Use mouse wheel or touch screen to slide gallery.
Newfoundland, route by route
My home project: documenting this island road by road, town by town, while it still looks like this.
Next: Southeast Asia
In September 2027 the archive goes travelling — towns and cities across Southeast Asia, photographed the same way, before they change. Follow along here.
Prints
Selected gigapixels are available as large-format prints — a valley on your wall, with every detail still in it.
Commissions & masterclasses
I take on a small number of commissions and teaching engagements each year — gigapixel documentation for tourism boards, hotels and heritage sites, and masterclasses for photographers who want to learn the craft properly. If you have a place that deserves recording, get in touch.