Maps as Art

Artist Ed Fairburn loves collecting all sorts of antique ephemera, but he has a particular soft spot for maps, which he uses as a canvas to express his art. For example, in this ink work over a map of Brooklyn (based on Cram’s 1894 Universal Atlas), Fairburn draws a human face along lines of roads, rivers and other map details–while carefully preserving the original character and functionality of the map. He calls this “hijacking cartography.”

“I’ve always enjoyed drawing portraits, translating the shapes of the human form under different light conditions into ink on paper, especially through a process of cross hatching,” he says. “I think this integrates well with the visual language of maps.”

Fairburn describes his technique as topopointillism or a meeting of topography and pointillism. “The defining aspect of pointillism is the merging of the marks to create a larger image–one which would typically become clearer when viewed from further away.”

Last year, two of his creations were included in the box set of Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection, a special edition re-release of John Lennon’s 1973 album. Tucked inside the special album box are two 46-inch square hand-drawn portraits of Lennon and Yoko Ono, which Fairburn superimposed on vintage maps of Liverpool and Tokyo, the cities where each artist comes from, respectively.

The portraits of the two singers, the largest that Fairburn has ever made, were commissioned in 2023 by the Lennon Estate. The album set won Best Boxed or Special Limited-Edition Package at the 2025 GRAMMYs. “I’m most proud of these two works,” he says. 

Check out Fairburn’s artwork at www.edfairburn.com