© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Seeing double again: more stereo viewers

As I have written before, stereoscopy and stereo-photography are part of a popular niche in photography and collecting. Some people, for example Ron Blum, of South Australia, have collected vast libraries of stereo images and are experts in the field. For myself, it's a peripheral interest, but that hasn't stopped me from accumulating a few hundred traditional stereoview cards and also a handful of different stereoscopes. One with particular resonance for me is the bright red plastic "View-a-Scope" issued by the Sanitarium food company in the 1960s to view a couple of series of stereo cards…

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Read more about the article Seeing double: 3D in vintage stereographs
3D viewing in the early 20th century. Photo by William Fraser

Seeing double: 3D in vintage stereographs

Humans have two eyes for a good reason. Viewing the same scene from two close but very slightly different locations creates an impression of depth. The brain, processing visual data from each eye, builds a scene in which it's easy to determine which elements are near and which are far away. We can learn to interpret a two-dimensional image - like a painting or a photograph - as representing depth of field, but of course it is never the same as viewing the real item or scene with two eyes. In the 1830s when photography was…

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Ed Tonks: lessons from local history

I like to flatter myself that I'm a little bit like my friend Ed Tonks. We're both very interested in good beer and in local history and geography. Both of us sometimes also get highly focused on narrow topics which we then follow in whatever odd directions chance dictates. Ed and I are both comfortable with the idea that many people would say we are "on the spectrum". That's fine. As Ed smilingly says: "The world should be thankful for enthusiasts". Enthusiasm is one of Ed's defining characteristics, and it's what has made him such a…

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