Panoramas from New York to Rome

Jeffrey Herzlich has been interested in documenting the world around him through photography for as long as he can remember, from the time he took his first amateur shots with a Kodak Brownie as a young boy in Brooklyn, to stitching together elaborate panoramas from shots taken in Italy with his Canon D5 digital SLR. And while the medium may have changed, the Oceanside photographer’s passion for his craft has remained constant. “I love art and I’ve always loved photography,” Herzlich said. “It was something I felt I had an affinity for.”

Judging from the comments in his guest book at the Oceanside Library, where he currently has an exhibit on display, visitors agree. “Rome Around Italy” is Herzlich’s third exhibition at the library. It features seventeen large-scale photographs of Italy’s major sites, from the Colosseum and the Piazza di Spagna, to the Tiber River and the Roman Forum. Each was stitched together from multiple photographs, expanded to either 24” X 48” or 36” X 60” and printed by Herzlich. He also framed each piece and hung it on the library’s walls.

The panoramas offer an intimate glimpse of the elaborate architecture and expansive vistas of Rome. Taken during the hot summer months, most of the major tourist sites are shown at quieter, less busy times. Tourists still appear in the shots, and the wide spaces give the impression that one could walk right into the photographs and join them, by meandering around a corner or climbing up the stairs. While Herzlich himself is no longer a tourist in the country — he has an apartment in Artena, in Rome — he is still fascinated by it, and hopes to impart some of the awe he still feels upon seeing it onto his viewers.