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The World Wide Panorama event of the first quarter of 2026 is a collection of panoramas with the common theme of “Exception”.: April1 - June 30, 2026

Next Event

• Quarter II/2026: Exception

II Exception

• Themes for the events 2026 will be announced in the WWP facebook group and the WWP mailing list.
  
• Shooting period is January 1 to March 31.
• The preparation server will be open from January 1 to March 31. You can request your own account/profile page on the server during this period.
• The new event’s site will be made public as soon as this administrative check is complete.
• There will be a Late Edit period after the first edition is made public, and a second, extended edition will be published at need.
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Essay

Exception

by Jan Kurschewitz with help of Claude

Every rule needs an exception. Not to be broken – to be confirmed. The famous phrase tells us that the "exception proves the rule", a saying that is quoted far more often than it is understood. What it really means: if someone says "except on Sundays", there must be a rule for the other six days. You cannot have an exception without something to be an exception to.

That logic cuts deeper than it first appears. The exception reveals the shape of whatever surrounds it. You learn more about a system by studying where it breaks down than by watching it work.

Then there is the other kind of exception – the "state of exception". Politicians and jurists have long debated who holds the power to declare it and what it permits. When rules are suspended, when what was previously unthinkable becomes suddenly reality, something fundamental shifts. The 20th century has more than a few examples of states of exception...

For the panoramic photographer, the frame takes in everything – but only ever at one instant, in one place, from one point. The world carries on around you in all directions. Of all the places you could have been, you chose to plant your tripod here. That choice is the exception: this location, declared worth seeing in 360°.

Perhaps the most interesting exceptions are the ones nobody planned for. The moment that didn't fit the story. The person who walked into frame. The place that refused to be what you expected.

The world right now is full of exceptions to rules we thought were settled – in politics, in climate, in the social contracts we inherited without questioning them. Some feel like emergencies. Others, quietly, might be the beginning of something new.

Where do you find yours?

Many thanks to Robert Bilsland for the banner from his exceptional panorama.