Midterm: Stereoscopic Photography

From the Greek “stereo” (“solid”) and opsis (“power of sight”) stereopsis is perceiving depth, relief, or three-dimensions (stereopsis, n., 2012). This ability is most commonly due to binocular vision, where the spacing of two eyes creates separate images of a scene from slightly different angles, which are then combined into one vision with three-dimensional quality in the brain.

The application of three-dimensional vision to two-dimensional images, by using a viewing implement, or a stereoscope, was first described by English physicist Charles Wheatstone in 1838. He created his stereoscope with prisms and mirrors, and it was originally used for viewing drawings.

Wheatstone stereoscope. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscope

Scottish physicist David Brewster improved the stereoscope in 1849, inventing the “refracting” or “Lenticular” stereoscope, which was reduced in size and used lenses instead of mirrors. He also invented the double camera for taking stereoscopic views, which were afterwards mostly produced with such double-lensed cameras.

These photographs were produced as stereographs, with two images side by side. Stereographs are a photographic format, not process, and were produced using multiple technical processes over time, including the daguerreotype, ambrotype, wet plate glass positive, mounted salted paper print, albumen prints, and gelatin print processes (Ritzenthaler & Vogt-O’Connor, 2006, p. 41). The majority of stereographs, also called stereo views, were mounted on cards.

Folson, A. H. (c.1850-1929). Trinity Church, Boston. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/2351548106/in/set-72157604192771132

 Daguerreotype stereographs were first publically exhibited in 1851 at the London International Exhibition, and were received enthusiastically by Queen Victoria and others (history of photography, 2013). Their popularity grew even more with the simple hand-held version of the stereoscope developed by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1861. Holmes’ invention, which was easy to manufacture, combined with his excited promotion of stereoscopes and stereographs in The Atlantic, helped to boost the already popular form in the United States.

Holmes stereoscope. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscope

Stereographs were extremely popular from 1850 through the 1920s and 1930s  (the rise of newsreels), and during this period millions of stereographs were produced. Photographers were sent out to photograph the world, and manufacturing the views was a big business. One of the first firms to produce stereographs was that of the Langenheim brothers, and later the leading publishers were Underwood & Underwood and the Keystone Company. Views could be bought individually, or more often, in large topical groups.

Stereoscopes became a popular instrument for home entertainment and education (much like radio, and then TV) and had an important impact on public knowledge and taste. Holmes was correct in his statement regarding the stereograph that, “Men will hunt all curious, beautiful, grand objects,” as the market for stereographs was expansive, and diverse (1859). Images captured local history, grand landscapes, foreign scenes, important people, architecture, war, disasters, and later on, staged scenes of humor and the home. Curiosity about the world was a huge force in stereographic popularity, and travel images as souvenirs, and of places one might never see, were very popular. 

Norman Rockwell painting of a boy viewing Egypt through his stereoscope. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rockwellboywithstereoscope.png

The expansion of the business of stereographs and their broad popularity not only impacted those directly involved, but also had an indirect impact on other branches of photography and visual theory at the time. Holmes not only wrote of the curious and beautiful objects available in stereographs, but also noted that “form is [now] cheap and transportable” (1859). Whether intentional or not, this idea was felt by those who saw in the stereograph (especially by the end of the century when stereographic photography had become quite uniform,) the cheapening of photography into popular commercialism. While these images would inform the conventions of publicity and advertisement photography in the future, they also pushed some photographers into “High Art” in response to “stereoscopic trash” (Jeffrey, 1981, p. 38).

Despite these other opinions, and the branching out of new forms in reaction to stereographs, it should be clear that stereographs hold great importance for cultural heritage institutions who might seek to collect, preserve, and offer access to these images. The broad use of stereographs in everyday residential life during these decades, along with the diversity of tastes and communities served by different stereograph subjects, has a strong impact on their usefulness for researchers in a number of fields. Their cultural currency is obvious in terms of looking at mass media, middleclass households, education, and the images themselves are rich in visual and contextual information, covering topographic views, local history, events, industries and trade, costume, urban and country life, humor, and portraits. They are also important for researching the history of photography itself, having been produced by multiple processes (stereoscopic photography, 2013). Preservation of stereographs is accordingly diverse, depending on the process by which they were made.

Stereographs and stereoscopes form an early node in the history and technology of three-dimensional viewing. Anyone who played with a slide-viewer growing up, crossed their eyes at a "Magic Eye, or enjoyed 3D at the movies has taken part in this history.

References

history of photography. (2013). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from   http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/457919/photography

Holmes, O. W. (1859, June). The stereoscope and the stereograph. The Atlantic, 6. Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1859/06/the-stereoscope-            and-the-stereograph/303361/

Jeffrey, I. (1981). Photography: A concise history. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ritzenthaler, M. L. & Vogt-O’Connor, D. (2006). Photographs: Archival care and management. Chicago: Society of American Archivists.  

stereopsis, n. (2012). In OED Online. Retrieved from http://0.www.oed.com.library.simmons.edu/view/Entry/189940?redirectedFrom=stereopsis&

Stereoscopic photography. (2013). The New York Public Library. Retrieved from http://stereo.nypl.org/about/stereoscopy

Wheatstone, C. (1838). Contributions to the physiology of vision: Part the first. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved, phenomena of binocular vision. Philosophical Transactions, 128, 371-394. Retrieved from http://www.stereoscopy.com/library/wheatstone-paper1838.html

Additional Resources

The Getty Museum has produced a nice simulation of stereo viewing.

Boston Public Library Stereographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/sets/72157604192771132/

Stereograph Cards at LOC: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/stereo/background.html#format

Civil War Stereographs at LOC: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/stereographs.html

The Center for Civil War Photography, 3-D Anaglyph Photography Exhibit:

http://www.civilwarphotography.org/3-d-anaglyph-photographs-exhibit