I was walking north from the Oculus in downtown Manhattan along West Broadway. Back in the day, when I lived and worked out of my studio at 18th Street and Broadway, this area of Soho was home to many high-end art galleries. Today, this “best use”of the art gallery real estate has migrated to west Chelsea near the High Line, and “best use” of street level in Soho seems to be brands like Gucci.

Along side the fashionista stores on West Broadway I saw the Eye Origin storefront, which offers to photograph your eye, and turn it into “art”. I opted to have my eyes photographed and to take the digital files, as obviously I didn’t need help with printing. Eye Origin told me that I would own my file, and could do whatever I liked with it.

The image above started with the photo of my left eye.

My Photoshop work involved compositing the image in reduced size into the pupil a number of times. I pasted a flower in the center of the innermost pupil, which you can see more clearly by expanding the image.

I believe that Eye Origin started in France, and has stores in Europe in places that are analogous to Soho in New York. 

When I asked, Eye Origin declined to provide any information about the camera, lens, and lighting used. I wasn’t paying much attention to this when I had my eyes photographed. So I can’t give you any information about the technical specifications for the original image, although the rig didn’t look very complicated.