Aerial Photography vs Hatsusaburō Panoramic Map

航空写真 / 初三郎式鳥瞰図

Aerial Photography comes from Photographic Genres and Hatsusaburō Panoramic Map from Diagrammatic Expression. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Aerial Photography

Aerial Photography — ナダール パリの気球俯瞰 1868 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainAerial Photography — ブラック ボストンの気球写真 1860 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainAerial Photography — ルース＝ユリュック間の塹壕線 垂直航空偵察写真 1917 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The view from above begun with Nadar's balloon: the vertical gaze that turns cities into figures, passing through survey and war into landscape-as-abstraction, and on to satellites and drones.

Hatsusaburō Panoramic Map

Hatsusaburō Panoramic Map — 吉田初三郎『伊勢名所図会』 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainHatsusaburō Panoramic Map — 『青梅鉄道沿線名所図会』（CC0）Hatsusaburō Panoramic Map — 台湾博覧会鳥瞰図 1935 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The tourist bird's-eye map style perfected by Hatsusaburō Yoshida: extravagantly curved horizons, exaggerated landmarks and a view that pulls distant cities into one sheet, turning Taishō and Shōwa era travel into pictorial maps.

Aerial PhotographyHatsusaburō Panoramic Map
Era1858–1913–1950s
FamilyPhotographic GenresDiagrammatic Expression
KindStyleStyle
CuesThe vertical view as figure / Terrain drawn by shadow / The gridded city / Scale without peopleCurving horizons / Exaggerated landmarks / Extreme wide-angle views / Painterly color
Best used forShowing the full extent of a city plan or a disaster in one frame · Graphics that use the shape of the land itself as figureConveying a destination's whole layout and access in one enjoyable sheet · Placing distant landmarks on one view by ignoring real distance
TypeAlways carry scale, north and date, set small in a cornerVertical brush lettering for place names, larger for the famous ones
CompositionPoint straight down, drop the horizon, read the ground as figureCurve the horizon strongly and stretch the featured area toward the viewer
MaterialShoot when low sun draws relief, not in flat midday lightPale watercolor ground with shrine vermilion and mountain green printed over
CautionReliance on pattern removes every clue to altitude and scale, and the picture stops telling anyone what is shown or how large it is.Pushing curve and exaggeration until the order of the route breaks gives a map that is fun to look at and useless on the ground.

Put these two together

Photographic Genres ／ Diagrammatic Expression

IndexStyle