You may never see these famous individuals in the same light once you have seen these astonishing and extraordinary photomosaics. Together with a short history of the art form, take a journey into a world where the simple rectangle has been used to incredible and often profound effect.

Madonna Louise Made of Ciccone-Ritchie

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It is not without some irony that the constituent parts of this supremely well put together mosaic of Madonna should be constructed entirely out of pictures of the megastar herself. As one of the most self-absorbed artists of this and the last century she might even appreciate the humor herself.

The photographic mosaic – or to give it its current term, the photomosaic – is not a new art form by any means but is one which causes a stir when done properly. It usually takes the form of a photograph that has been divided in to rectangular sections. Early examples usually had evenly sized divisions but this has evolved to take in rectangles of irregular sizes, such as the one of Madonna (or as Justin Timberlake calls her, Ma-daaaar-na).

Barack Obama Made of Flags

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Who can now question the guy’s patriotic credentials when it gets “flagged up” like this? Carefully made up of flags of some of the constituent states of the USA, no doubt he would give a huge thumbs up to this!

A photomosaic takes an original picture. After the division in to rectangles, each of these is replaced with a different photograph which, when reduced to a small size, has the right average color of the original.

Michael Made Up of Phelps

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Another stunning example of this genre, this photomosaic of Phelps is made up of images of himself. It would have been just as appropriate if the original pictures had been those of dolphins and other aquatic creatures!

When vied at low magnifications (that is, from afar!) the individual pixels of each photograph appear as the primary image. If you walk back from your computer (you probably already have!), the image of Phelps should look, simply, like a standard photograph of him. Although there is obviously some difference to standard digital photography when viewed from a distance it is only when one gets close up that the realization dawns just how cleverly put together these photomosacis are. The word “montage” comes immediately to mind.

Marilyn Monroe Made Out of Vanity Fair

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One of the elements that make a photomosaic stand out from others is the choice of the “secondary” photos which will make up the final image. Here, Marilyn Monroe is given a new image by the use of Italian issues of “Vanity Fair” magazine. No doubt she would read this magazine while pondering How to Marry a Millionaire or whether Gentlemen Prefer Blonds. Whatever, some will like it, some will not, but this image is hot!

As language evolves, so do the terms that we use. Originally, a photomosaic was a term coined to refer to “compound” photographs. You have probably taken such a compound yourself. Peering off the Eiffel Tower, you carefully take pictures around the perimeter of the viewing platform. When you got your film developed you then kept your fingers crossed that the photographs would seamlessly blend to give a panoramic view of Paris. They never did, of course, unless it was done professionally, but these were the first tentative steps in the art form.

Amy in Letters

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Appropriately enough, being a song writer we discover Amy Winehouse is made up of letters. Each letter is of a different size, with those on her face being made up of tiny letters. Notice that the type face used is deliberately primitive and poorly sketched. It somehow seems appropriate, rather than using something set in stone, such as Ariel or Times New Roman. Had the image been made of empty bottles of wine and surgical syringes, it couldn’t have been any more effective.

Many think of the art form of the photomosaic evolving in the sixties with the advent of pop art. In fact, Russian space scientists were doing something that would fall in to the definition as early as the late nineteen fifties. They used their nascent satellites to take pictures of the moon and to create the first photographic panoramic views of the surface of the moon.

Jim Morrison in Circles on Rectangles

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This is one that works better at a distance but its component parts are rather more abstract than the others we have seen so far, even though they still form a pattern in themselves. This iconic image of Morrison has been given a new life via a twenty first century makeover, though purists would argue that the original had no need of change or tampering.

Computer-generated images, such as these, are not new if you think in terms of “blink of the eye” history. It is thought that the originator of the digital photomosaic is one Joseph Francis, who created a poster for Bell Labs in 1993 that consisted of computer themed tiles.

Luciano Pavarotti in Letters

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The late great tenor is here reproduced in an abstraction of the photorealism usually associated with the form, to stunning effect. No doubt anyone would pay more than a “tenor” for this amazing work of art.

The influence of Chuck Close is evident in the first attempts to capture forms such as this via computer in the early nineties. Close would paint with a brush attached to his hand (he was a stroke victim) on a canvas separated in to rectangles with a similarly squared off photograph as his “original”. This would produce photorealistic pixilated works of art which were then the inspiration for the move in to computers.

Sigmund Freud Made Up of “Stressed” Individuals

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Sigmund Freud would have had a field day with this portrait of himself made up of individual images of what I can only refer to as “stressed” individuals. The pleasure of seeing him told to “analyze this” would be difficult to better.

It was 1994 when the photomosaic really began to take off in a corporate way. This is always the main signifier this day and age of when a “new; art form has taken off. The corporate big boys jump on the bandwagon. Some of the first organizations to see the marketing power of this form were DC Comics and Benetton. Benetton particularly caught the popular imagination with their rendering of the word AIDS, made up of the pictures of the faces of hundreds of people from around the world who had the condition.

Audrey Hepburn in a Sixties Two-Tone

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As the sixties took experimentation with black and white in art to a new level then it is quite appropriate that one of the icons of that decade should be created using these two colors only. It is easy to underestimate the skill that is needed to match up the right shapes with the individual pixel of a picture, but it is in fact an extremely time consuming procedure. The knack is in making it look easy. Have a go yourself and you will soon discover the truth!

1995 saw the form taken to perhaps it illogical conclusion. The “Gioconda Sapiens’ took the Mona Lisa, one of the most loved paintings in the world and reproduced it using no less than ten thousand human faces. Sorry, ten thousand and sixty two – the canvas would otherwise have been uneven!

Liberty in Letters

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An exception to the subject norm of this article, with a non-human face included. It is so exquisite though, it had to be included and is representative of the freedom of art and the artist – not to mention those who view – and judge – the work.

Depressingly, the term photomosaic was trademarked in 1996 (it was finally fully registered as recently as 2003). Robert Silvers was doing his Masters Degree at MIT when he applied and the patent, when granted, was assigned to Runaway Technology Inc. He did this in order to protect his “proprietary innovations and continue to make… unique artwork”.

Gene Simmons out of Kittens

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There is a lot of humor in the form of the photomosaic and no more so than in this wonderful picture of Gene Simmons, the Kiss front man. As it is made entirely from kittens it somewhat goes against his “image” and as produces a smile! The images around the eyes get somewhat darker in more ways than one, however!

Next to get on the band wagon was Disney. In 2003 the largest ever photomosaic was created – live by castmenbers – and it was over ten thousand square feet in size. Then in 2004 a series of giant mosaics were created to celebrate Disneyland’s fiftieth birthday. One broke new ground by being created on three levels. There was an image of Steamboat Willie made up of castmember photographs. The castmember photographs were themselves made up of over one hundred and fifty thousand images of guests to the amusement center. Quite a feat!

Steve Jobs Made of Apple Images

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It is important that the constituent images of a photomosaic are appropriate and none could argue that this one of the Appleman are not. There seems to be some further abstraction going on with the background, but the overall effect is superb.

Bt 2006 the first three dimensional scatter mosaic hit our TV screens and the form hit a new level (whether you wish to say it was high or a low is up to you!). American Idol included a technique that rotated photographs in varying degrees. There was an also an overlapping effect that gave the effect of scattering the pictures over a surface.

Bono in his Own Words

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This photomosaic of Irish U2 front man, political activist and self-styled savior of humanity, Bono, is made up of lyrics from the songs he has written over the years including “With or Without You”. Wonderfully rendered and no doubt on the walls of his fans all over the world!

Not a U2 song, but by Buggles, but “Video killed the radio star”. The next step in the march of the photomosaic has been the inevitable invention of the videomosaic. In 2005, the Playstation 2 game, “God of War” formed an image of the main character (the slightly daftly named Kratos). The image was formed by a number of “in game” videos. Like time, art never stands still.

Charlie Made Up of Chaplin

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One of the early masters of cinema made up of hundreds of images of himself – there is a certain poetic justice in that. The artist has avoided the temptation of doing it in clack and white, instead choosing to go with red. Marvelous!

To put a coda on the issue around the patenting of photomosaics, there has been no litigation by Runaway Technology since its patent was granted. That means that organizations using photomosaics for commercial purposes must either not be infringing Runaway Technology’s process or have applied and gained license. Or, it could just be that Runaway Technology has not brought any proceedings against them, for whatever reason! Most of the

Bush Made Up of Voters

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As a democratically elected leader (unless you count the Florida Fiasco) George “Dubya” Bush is seen here made up of the faces of those who (may have) voted for him. What they are, though, are pictures of the service people who have died as a result of the invasion of Iraq, which adds profundity to this photomosaic. As he represents them it is more than just a satisfying choice of image, but should serve as a constant reminder to the man himself of what his responsibilities were and his accountability to these people and their families.

If you wish to explore further, click on the links of these images. You can then choose to see them in much larger sizes which will give you an even better impression of how they are made and what makes them up. All images originate on the FLICKR photo sharing website and many are from the original artists, who often invite you to comment on their work. Go and take a look, you won’t be disappointed!