First: Old English fyr(e)st ; of Germanic origin, related to Old Norse fyrstr and German Fürst‘ prince,’ from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit prathama, Latin primus, and Greek prōtos.

Welcome to Panorama‘s first Quarterly Issue. Our purpose is to shift the perspective of travel literature and imagery towards a more panoramic, modern worldview, and we have chosen the theme of firsts to take you on a revolutionary journey through travel-themed fiction, poetry, imagery, essays, and memoir.

We begin with illustrations by Gaurav Ogale, a photo essay of a rarely seen landscape in Iran by Farshid Tighehsez, and a slideshow of portraits which redefine how we see and are seen by Lola Akimade Åkerström. Then we travel to Everest through the eyes of three different writers, in Triptych. Murzban Shroff takes us to the streets of Mumbai in Streetview, Ernest White explores the legacy of the flaneur through James Baldwin, and Jose Varghese rediscovers the fine art of letter writing, describing an imagined journey to the island of Farasan.

From poetry by Dato Madgraze about his native Georgia, to Alden Jones’ afternoon in Cuba with Nehanda Abiodun, once #3 on the FBI’s most wanted list, to Paul McVeigh’s essay on returning home to Belfast to question his Irish identity, Panorama‘s first issue takes you places while redefining how you see the world.

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

A Panoramic Revolution

Amy Gigi Alexander

Mexico

The birth of Panorama.

Essay from the Senior Editor

What we leave behind

Paula Lee

USA

Serial displacement and the definitions of here and there.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Photo Essay

Pearl of Iran

Farshid Tighehsez

Iran

Capturing the vanishing beauty of Lake Urmia, Iran from the water and from the land.

Triptych

Everest

TA Loeffler, Elizabeth Enslin, and Dharmendar Kanwar

Canada, USA, India

“The curtains flowed rhythmically in and out with the wail of the siren. Different from the wide-open view of the rescue helicopter, the ambulance felt closed in, shuttered. Shuttered like it might haul me off to where I’d never be heard from again.”

Slideshow

Intimacy

Lola Akinmade Åkerström

Sweden

Examining the impact of perspective on portraiture.

Letter from home

Farasan Island

Jose Varghese

Saudi Arabia

Letter to a friend about an imagined journey to a real place.

Streetview

Mumbai

Murzban Shroff

India

“The gypsies had been there ever since I can remember. There were men, women, and children. The men were dark, surly, and unwashed, often bearded. They looked older than the women, who were too young to be mothers. And yet they were – young mothers – with babies at their breasts and runny-nosed infants to chase and berate for daring to venture out of permissible limits. That could kill, the venturing out. For this was outside Grant Road Station, on the main road.”

Emerging Writer

Cherry picking

Daniel Zhao

Hong Kong

“At twilight, Johnny roams the narrow streets. He passes the central square, the old church and the launderette. He walks on searching for something. When he walks, he is happy. He feels free. In tune with the rhythm of the world, his life is a melody.”

Panorama‘s Emerging Writer Fund supports the work of writers whose work has never previously been published. It is funded entirely by donations from our readers, and we are thrilled to be showcasing Cherry Picking by Daniel Zhao in this issue.

Influencer

James Baldwin

Ernest White II

USA

“Compact and dark-complexioned, with legendary eyes that took in the physical and the spiritual, writer—nay, griot—James Baldwin was anything but unseen in Leukerbad, Switzerland, to which he would retreat several times in the 1950s to write and rest. He was anything but unseen in Istanbul, that undulating adulteration of civilizations at the end or the beginning of Europe, where he lived and worked intermittently throughout the 1960s.”