Just a couple of possibly bad ideas:
Textures and materials in the final piece that represent each pixel such as a leaf for a pixel which contains trees, pebble for beach ect, either using computer texture or photo. The images could be mapped to the pixels.
Using a single strip of pixels and narrowing down focus.
Changing perspective on the image.
Blurring the pixilated image to create a smooth effect.
I’ll add to this as I come up with more and make decisions.