Solution: Viewfinder
Answer: STREETPHOTO

Written by Grant Yang

The puzzle consists of 7 folders each containing many image strips. The names of the folders and most of the images are anagrams of: RED HERRING, implying that the given orders are meaningless. The strips in each folder are the same width and can be rearranged to form almost complete Google Street View locations, missing one or two strips from each image.

Street View ImagePaintingArtistBlanks

Place de Dublin
PARISSTREET;RAINYDAY
*9*163
Caillebotte ST

Ornans Cemetary
ABURIALATORNANS
*17118
Courbet R

Hampshire House
THESUICIDEOFDOROTHYHALE
*7*114
Kahlo EE

Maidenhead Railway Bridge
RAIN,STEAMANDSPEED
218*6*
Turner TP

Le Café La Nuit
CAFÉTERRACEATNIGHT
201512*
Van Gogh H

Battersea Bridge
NOCTURNE:BLUEANDGOLD
**413
Whistler OT

Olson House
CHRISTINASWORLD
1910*5
Wyeth O
ORDERMISSINGBYARTIST
1234567891011121314151617181920

The locations are all sites of famous paintings, and the name lengths of the paintings are confirmed by the number of strips each image is divided into (including missing ones). Matching the letters of the painting names to strips, the numbered strips spell out: ORDER MISSING BY ARTIST. Reordering the letters of the missing strips by the last name of the artists alphabetically spells out the final answer: STREET PHOTO


Author’s Notes

I had an idea to add image strips of paintings for the first round meta but scrapped the idea. I thought this concept was thematic for the hunt so I made it into its own puzzle using some of my favorite paintings. I was inspired by /r/PictureGame to identify geographical locations from minimal identifying information, so my original construction blurred out all text in the images. Halfway through, I thought it would be too hard and uninteresting so I retained the box in the bottom left of the Street View images to make the locations easily identifiable. Framing the photos to be similar to the paintings was a fun challenge, but not entirely possible in some cases. I’m especially proud of the framing for A Burial At Ornans.

I also originally planned for 11 paintings total but figured it would also be too tedious. Some scrapped paintings that I still have the image strips for include American Gothic, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Bal du Moulin de la Galette, and The Gross Clinic.