Stereoscopy: the Dawn of 3-D

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The majority of LSC’s books have been historical,’ he says, ‘but this book is about photography for the common person, just as AP has set out its own agenda over the years. These are all amateurs who took part. They take stereoscopic pictures because they get a thrill, or a feeling of comfort or connection, or want to capture something that will evoke very strong emotions when they look at it later in life.’ It’s a hard life At the Meet and Greet afterwards Brian was keen to talk to the audience about their thoughts on Stereoscopy and chat about how people can get help starting their own 3D photography journey. Each copy of the new book comes with an OWL viewer to bring to life in fantastic 3-D the rare Victorian photographs from his extensive archive. The British Library and Kings College here: https://www.bl.uk/events/stereoscopy-the-dawn-of-3d-brian-may-and-denis-pellerin

Although May is best-known for playing arenas with the band he formed over 50 years ago, one of his numerous scientific hinterlands away from the stage is stereoscopy. For the uninitiated, it was an early way of looking at photographs via a special viewer that fused together two flat images to create a single 3D picture. Stereoscope machines entranced Victorian society for a short period in the 1850s and 1860s before being usurped by a different craze.Brian May says : This is a thrill, and a first, to do a book signing session in my own store. I’m hoping this will lead to stereoscopy having a permanent home in London for the first time since the 19th century. Proud Galleries, in collaboration with the London Stereoscopic Company, introduced a new audience to Stereoscopy with a talk by Sir Brian May and Denis Pellerin on the history of 3D photography, which started in Victorian times. May and his co-author Denis Pellerin, a French academic who joins us for the interview, believe Wheatstone should be as well-known as more famous Victorian-era inventors such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. It’s one of the reasons they wrote Stereoscopy: The Dawn of 3-D – to try to raise Wheatstone’s profile. The book credits Charles Wheatstone as the inventor of the stereoscope. “He was denied his proper place, other people claimed that they had invented it, and some of those falsehoods survived until quite recently,” said May. The book sets the record straight, he added.

For the first time at Watts Gallery, discover an exhibition dedicated to a 19th century craze that saw the birth of 3D images. I have a wonderful antique stereo camera called a Rolleidoscop and the images I took of my kids when they were younger are beyond belief. You get such a strong sense of reality. There is still a magic about analogue and it’s the same in music… analogue has a different quality that you can’t quite get in digital.’ And there must be something in us which makes us yearn for the old kind of photography. Digital can Stereoscopy is Good For You: Life in 3D is the latest book from Brian’s London Stereoscopic Company (LSC). It is a collection of ‘stereo’ pictures taken by people all over the world throughout the pandemic. There are some fantastic images in the book as you can see here (they are best viewed with Brian’s Owl viewer, available here). One visionVisitors will view the visuals in the splendour of 3-D through the stereoscopic OWL viewer designed by Brian May himself. Bennu 3-D: Anatomy of an Asteroid is the first-ever asteroid atlas and comes with a pair of 3D glasses. (Image credit: The University of Arizona Press/London Stereoscopic Company) Returning to image making, Brian strongly believes that exploring stereo photography can benefit more conventional photographers, too. ‘This may sound corny, but taking stereo pictures does open your eyes. You see in a different way, as you need to imagine that you can see depth as well as everything else. I now have an indelible disposition to look at scenes and see them “properly” in stereo. A lot of people go through almost their whole lives without realising they have this wonderful depth of perception. My job as the stereoscopic evangelist is to go, “No, there is a way you can transform your pictures into a format that will enable you to enjoy them forever as you did at the time of capture.”’

Insightful predictions from the authors on the [asteroid’s] sample materials to be returned to Earth in September 2023. Charles Wheatstone, a Professor at Kings College, discovered stereoscopy and invented the stereoscope in the 1830s and this was to be the start of 3-D.I’m thrilled that London’s prestigious PROUD gallery will be hosting our exhibition for a massive FIVE MONTHS. The stars seem to be aligning —- this is IT !“Stereoscopy Is Good For You” will put 3-D firmly on the map in 2022 !”