Crabtrem shows a great raster option! (make sure you've got plenty of resolution).
Vector-wise I think you're on the right track.
On that particular ball the lines don't appear to all converge at the poles. (I've seen them done both ways though)
These were my steps:
Pic 1: Used the crescent tool to make these eight shapes
Pic 2: Expand stroke and boolean add. All one web now.
Pic 3: To get blocks instead of lines... Boolean subtract what's in pic 2 from a solid circle.
Pic 4: If you want... Select the new object and in Nodes mode hit simplify. As you can see.... not too nodey B) .
If you then Boolean expand the blue object, each section will be it's own discrete vector shape ready to be a frame for individual images.
Good luck to you.
I have decided against the File-Place in place of making an array of squares, and using paste-inside to hold the pictures. I then went through the same process of using the spherical filter, and pasting that inside a circle with some FX added.
Hope you find success with your method. Look forward to seeing a result.
