True Crime in Old Stereographs

True Crime in Old Stereographs

What is meant by true crime? It’s a non­fic­tion genre hav­ing to do with actu­al crimes, usu­al­ly mur­der. It’s pop­u­lar now, but it was pop­u­lar in the 19th cen­tu­ry too‒just think of the pen­ny press and the Nation­al Police Gazette. As the joke says, “Crime may not pay, but it sells!”. I was curi­ous to see if it made its way into stereo cards, too. In what fol­lows, I’ve tried to pro­vide a thumb­nail sketch of each crime. Accounts from the time often vary, so I’ve tried to present a com­pos­ite set of the facts which I think are the most likely.

The Nevers Collection

The Nevers Collection

The sto­ry of 21 stereo glass neg­a­tives from the ear­ly stages of The Great War in Nev­ers, France.

Stereo cards from modern times

Stereo cards from modern times

I present you a series of mod­ern stereo cards, inspired by the Vic­to­ri­an way of depict­ing real­i­ty: Stereo­scop­ic pho­tog­ra­phy. I’ve been inspired and fas­ci­nat­ed by the atmos­phere of old stereo­scop­ic cards, which were, in their time, the most real­is­tic way to immor­tal­ize and then relive the mem­o­ries dri­ven by the sight of a par­tic­u­lar scene. I show you how to cre­ate your own mod­ern stereo card in 10 minutes!

Mid-Century 35 mm Filmstrip Stereo Viewers

Mid-Century 35 mm Filmstrip Stereo Viewers

3D film­strip view­ers are a fam­i­ly of stereo view­ers that gained promi­nence in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. In fact, it was a small film­strip view­er called Tru-Vue that re-intro­duced 3D view­ing as a mid-cen­tu­ry pas­time, made it more afford­able than ear­li­er stere­o­scope sets, and paved the way in the hearts and minds of con­sumers for the pop­u­lar 3D reel & card view­ers that would come lat­er. For this rea­son, Tru-Vue has often been called “the miss­ing link” in stere­oscopy. Explore some of the most inter­est­ing film­strip stereo view­ers here.

The Autochrome project

The Autochrome project

The Autochrome was one of the prin­ci­pal ways of pro­duc­ing colour pho­tog­ra­phy in the ear­ly 20th Cen­tu­ry. The Autochrome Project is a per­son­al endeav­our to pro­duce a work­able method of recre­at­ing the Lumiere Autochrome. 

An Abbreviated History of Stereo-Pair Illustrated books

An Abbreviated History of Stereo-Pair Illustrated books

Every now and then you can find stereo illus­trat­ed books that incor­po­rate a view­er, to view the print­ed stereo pairs, rather than anaglyphs. This basic con­cept and for­mat turns out to be quite old. Read more about it in David Stark­man’s abbre­vi­at­ed his­to­ry of Stereo Illus­trat­ed books.