Murals of Tibet
The problem
Ancient Buddhist temple murals across remote Tibet were deteriorating faster than they were being recorded.
The approach
Gigapixel capture in situ, returning over years, prioritising resolution high enough to preserve brushwork rather than just document subject matter.
What was built
Eight years of intermittent capture, 2010–2018, across Tibet's most remote regions with art historian Thomas Laird.
The outcome
Published by TASCHEN in 2018 as a SUMO edition — the publisher's largest format, reserved for major photographic monographs.
In 2010, Gavin began an eight-year gigapixel capture project across Tibet’s most remote regions with art historian Thomas Laird, photographing ancient Buddhist temple murals at ultra-high resolution before deterioration and neglect could erase them further — work Panogs’ own materials describe as preserving “a culture whose Sistine Chapels were literally crumbling.”
The result was published in 2018 as a SUMO-edition book by TASCHEN — the publisher’s largest and most prestigious physical format, reserved for major photographic monographs.
Role, precisely: the gigapixel capture, not the book credit. Gavin is not individually credited in the published TASCHEN volume — the book’s authorship centers on Thomas Laird. This is the honest version: a genuinely significant, years-long capture project, described accurately as capture work in service of Laird’s book, not as co-authorship of it.
Source note: confirmed via Panogs’ own dated project-reference materials (cost, dates, description). GigaPan’s public materials independently corroborate the Laird collaboration.
His task was to best preserve the artistry of a culture whose Sistine Chapels were literally crumbling from neglect, through high-resolution gigapixel capture systems.