Another cover

I had intended to take a few weeks, even months, to accumulate enough new profile pictures to create a new cover photo-mosaic for the 1in7b Facebook page. Surprisingly, I've had no trouble collecting images for a second cover in as many weeks, which has turned out to be a remarkably fulfilling creative outlet for me.

As you may have have guessed, I spend a fair amount of time online. While doing so, I pay close attention to the images on various web sites and Facebook pages. I am particularly interested in "profile images" that would fit well into the next mosaic. Take a look at the image for this week:

My technique has evolved and the image above is double resolution, but here is how I select and arrange the individual images to be included in this composite. Some of this profiles are from my own Facebook friends. Some are celebrities for one reason or another. Many are unknown to me. But they all have a story; they all have hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows. Each one is a UNIQUE individual, and all are alike in more ways that we often recognize. Some have lived a long life, even died, such as Maria von Trapp who was 99 years old at her death this week; others have their entire lives ahead of them.

I have enjoyed spending a few minutes examining each profile wondering about the person represented. Why is her or his picture online? What were their lives like before the picture? What has happened since? The point is that we are all unique individuals and we ALL have a unique role to play in our communities, our nations, and the world. I am one in seven billion people on this planet. One person can only do so much, but SO MUCH is what I can and must do.

1in7b Cover

The Cover of 1in7b is a composite of profile pictures from around the globe. Fewer than ninety, these images are intended to represent the seven billion people who populate our world. A few of them I know personally and relate to regularly; most of them I have never met and may not even know their names. They are all real people with fears and concerns, dreams and aspirations.

Although I am not an artist by any stretch, my creative side would now like to make a new cover. Don't worry, I don't plan to abandon the concept of a few profile images standing in for the seven billion, but it seems appropriate to rotate these. I thought about just changing one or two occasionally, but on further reflection it seems better to change the entire Cover from time to time.

So here is my plan. First, I have been collecting images from various sources and saving them to a PowerPoint file. The originals are stored with full resolution so that when they are cropped and reduced in size, they will be as crisp as possible. Second, I will begin the process of cropping and reducing these to 53 x 53 pixel images, which will also to be stored on the same PPT file. This allows for easy manipulation and sorting. Third, I will move these images to a new composite image to be uploaded to Facebook, which will require cropping the top and bottom rows.

Here are the specs. Each of the profiles is 53x53 pixels. The space between each one is 3 pixels. There are 15x6 cells in the entire cover image for a total of 90. Some may be combined as 53x109 pixels or 109x53 pixels or 109x109 pixels. The edges are 7 pixels in width and 6 pixels in height. The entire image is 15*53 + 14*3 + 2*7 pixels in width and 6*53 + 5*3 + 2*6 in height or 851 x 345 pixels.