VR Photographer Gilles Vidal gives us a front-row seat to this year’s presidential elections in France.

Ségolène Royal

Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP)

Street demonstrations against Le Pen

Hans Nyberg’s Panoramas.dk has featured my VR photo of a demonstration against harassment of women in the streets of Cairo. I’ve always believed in the huge potential of VR photography in the field of photojournalism (or as I call it, VR photojournalism). Especially if the photos puts a light on social issues that do not get local media attention.

I appreciate the recognition and will continue using VR photography to show things that matter.

I took this VR photo (virtual tour) of the demonstration that was held infront of Doctor’s Syndicate ‘Dar Al-Hikma’ on Sunday 16th July 2006. Hundreds came out to show support and solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people. Truckloads of Egyptian riot police were present and controlled the protesters by limiting the area where they could voice their protest. I checked Google New today and NOTHING was mentioned about it.

More demonstrations will be organized in the coming days. I’ll try to take more VR photos without being arrested or my camera being confiscated.

I have 2 formats ready for your viewing pleasures: A medium-sized view which is easy to download and requires no plugins (500K / FLASH) and a fullscreen, in-your-face view that requires QuickTime player (1.3MB / QUICKTIME). QuickTime is a free media player and you can download it from here.