Very nice :) Adam Ferriss is an artist who uses this style of sorting with space images. I was working on an angle mode the other day. Code is still a rough draft though, breaks easily if you try to push the cone off the edge. 
deepfields[source_, fraction_, width_, sort_, rotate_, size_, mode_, 
  m_] := Module[{newpic = {}, left, middle, right, picdat = source},
  Which[
   mode == "Straight",
   If[rotate == 0, , picdat = Transpose[picdat]];
   Do[
    left = 
     SortBy[picdat[[i, 1 ;; Floor[Length[picdat[[i]]]*fraction]]], 
      sort];
    middle = 
     picdat[[i, 
       Floor[Length[picdat[[i]]]*fraction + 1] ;; 
        Floor[Length[picdat[[i]]]*(fraction + width)]]];
    right = 
     Reverse[SortBy[
       picdat[[i, 
         Floor[Length[picdat[[i]]]*(fraction + width) + 1] ;; All]], 
       sort]];
    AppendTo[newpic, Join[left, middle, right]];
    , {i, 1, Length[picdat]}];
   If[rotate == 0, , newpic = Transpose[newpic]];
   , mode == "Angle",
   If[rotate == 0, , picdat = Transpose[picdat]];
   Do[
    left = 
     SortBy[picdat[[i, 
        1 ;; Floor[
          Length[picdat[[i]]]*(fraction - i/(m*Length[picdat]))]]], 
      sort];
    middle = 
     picdat[[i, 
       Floor[Length[picdat[[i]]]*(fraction - i/(m*Length[picdat])) + 
          1] ;; 
        Floor[Length[
           picdat[[i]]]*((fraction + i/(m*Length[picdat])) + width)]]];
    right = 
     Reverse[SortBy[
       picdat[[i, 
         Floor[Length[
              picdat[[i]]]*((fraction + i/(m*Length[picdat])) + 
               width) + 1] ;; All]], sort]];
    AppendTo[newpic, Join[left, middle, right]];
    , {i, 1, Length[picdat]}];
   If[rotate == 0, , newpic = Transpose[newpic]];
   ];
  Image[newpic, ImageSize -> size]
  ]
