Ed Fairburn’s Map Portraits: Where Cartography Becomes a Face

At first you see a face. Move closer and it breaks into roads, printed labels and delicate networks of lines. Step back, and the person returns.

Ed Fairburn’s map portraits make that small act of looking feel like a discovery. The paper retains its own visual language while ink and other drawing materials bring another subject into view. Geography and portraiture occupy the same space without either becoming quite invisible.

Maps are part of the composition

In his artist statement, Fairburn describes studying the patterns already present in old paper maps, then gradually modifying them with materials including ink, paint and pencil. He calls his approach topopointillism, combining the ideas of topography and pointillism.

The existing roads and contours provide opportunities and constraints. A densely printed area might support a shadow; a quieter space can remain light. His stated aim is to work with the map’s structure and retain its function, rather than cover it with an unrelated picture.

This is physical drawing on a printed surface. The fact that we encounter the results online should not make the map disappear from our understanding of how the work was made.

The circular artwork is a sky map

The lead image in this selection is particularly rewarding. Its German heading, Der gestirnte Himmel, identifies a starry sky chart, and the surrounding markings describe the northern celestial hemisphere.

It is not a map of the Moon. The circles added to the portrait can resemble craters at a glance, but the underlying field is organised around stars and celestial coordinates. Recognising that changes the associations of the image: a human profile appears within a chart made for looking far beyond Earth.

The portrait also shifts with viewing distance. Up close, individual marks and labels compete for attention. From farther away, the eye groups those marks into a head and face.

Look for the join between two kinds of line

In the selected geographical map portrait, follow one printed route until it meets a darker drawn area. Ask whether your attention stays with the road or switches to the feature of the face.

That meeting point is more interesting than simply calling the work detailed. It reveals a choice: where to reinforce a line, where to leave it alone and where to let the viewer complete the shape.

You can compare this with Bellerby’s handmade globes, where cartography becomes a three-dimensional object, or Patrick Vale’s drawn Manhattan skyline, where many small marks build a larger city view.

Try a personal map study

Use a spare map you own and are happy to mark, or make a simple sketch of a familiar neighbourhood. Keep valuable originals intact.

Choose one memory associated with the place: a daily walk, a first meeting or a favourite corner. Highlight three features that matter to that memory, leaving the rest faint. You do not need to produce a portrait or imitate Fairburn’s technique.

The exercise is about attention. A map records one version of a place; the marks you add reveal what you notice within it. For another approachable project, explore our ideas for making art with maps.

The existing map sets a challenge

A blank sheet lets the artist choose every mark. A printed map arrives with roads, boundaries, labels and areas of different density already in place. Fairburn’s portraits use those existing decisions as part of the drawing. A face that emerges convincingly while the map remains legible has to negotiate both systems, rather than simply place one picture over another.

Compare the whole gallery at two distances

View each artwork once for the portrait and again for the underlying chart. A dark area can read as facial shadow from a distance and become a collection of printed routes and added marks close up. The complete sequence makes it easier to compare where that transition is strongest. Some images may reveal the face immediately; others ask the eye to assemble it gradually.

A place can hold a personal association

A map can carry a personal association without documenting a sitter's birthplace or travels. Fairburn's portraits bring human and geographical forms together, but any biographical connection would need to come from the artist's account of the particular work. That leaves a useful idea for your own memories: choose a place with meaning, then decide which features deserve emphasis. The exercise might produce a highlighted route rather than a face. What matters is the relationship between a printed system of information and the attention a person brings to it.