Welcome to Stereographer.com

By Craig Goldwyn

Stereographs are remarkable, often breathtaking, slices of reality that can transport the viewer out of body. When people first see a good stereograph the response is almost always "WOW!"

Antique stereo viewer cabinet.

The first photographs were made in the 1830s and the first stereographs were made in the 1840s. From 1860 to 1920 practically every middle-class and upper class home had a stereoviewer and a drawer full of stereocards. In its heyday it was the way we saw the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Big Ben, and the Great War. It was the television of its day.

With the popularization of movies, then newsreels, and finally television, interest in stereography waned. It enjoyed a niche revival in the 1950s with the popularity of View-Master. Since View-Master was introduced in 1939, one billion reels and 100 million viewers have been sold, mostly in the 1950s. Then in the late 1990s, IMAX introduced a new stereo movie projection system that, along with computer graphics and virtual reality machines, promises to increase the number of devotees, collectors, and creators. At the dawn of the new millennium, the craft of stereography is evolving into an artform. This site will track that growth.

How stereography works

It's the same as stereo music. We have two eyes about two inches apart, and two ears about eight inches apart. We see and hear the world from two different angles, and our brains process the information into a single picture or sound that has depth and dimension. Stereo recordings use two microphones, and stereo photos use two lenses.

Just hold up a finger at arm's length. Look at it with both eyes. Then look at it with one eye. Then the other. Notice how the backgound shifts? The distance between our eyes causes this, and it enables us to see depth in the world around us. As a predatory animal the ability to gauge depth enabled us to throw rocks and spears with accuracy and move to the top of the food chain. The English physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone was the first to demonstrate this phenomenon by making drawings from the viewpoints of each eye. He made a device with mirrors to demonstate the phenomenon, and gave it a name of Greek derivation, "stereoscope."