My stereophotography and stereoview collection are two sides of the same coin for me and have a common origin story. Travel back with me to May 2014 — London. A chance encounter on a canal boat. A question asked. An answer given. My life… transformed.
Though its popularity increased and decreased throughout the decades, the concept of stereoscopy was continuously applied to a variety of practices including medicine — even today.
Back in 1838 the concept of binocular vision had not yet been explored or written about anywhere. It was a scientist in his mid 30s who not only described the phenomenon later called stereopsis but also constructed a device to view two flat images in 3D which he called a stereoscope. This is especially remarkable as photography was not invented until one year later. Charles Wheatstone’s observations were based only on drawings. Most of these drawings are based on horizontal mirroring which is why we call them mirror stereos today. Read Wheatstone’s original source here.
