Ian Ference's 3D blog on all things stereographic, from classic scopes & stereoviews to historical context & modern analysis
Long-time readers of Brooklyn Stereography should be unsurprised that I love amateur glass stereoviews. In this article, I use a set of seven received earlier this week to highlight exactly why.
A month-long French offensive known as the Second Battle of Verdun is the subject of this 10-slide series put out by the SDV division of LSU. Featuring scenes from the recaptured regions surrounding Esnes, the series really portrays the devastation caused by 4 million shells impacting a region localized around a few miles of space.
While touring the ruins after the Great War was rather unexceptional, this well-shot amateur set is rather bizarre in that a lone woman is pictured in most of the shots, always with a stolid expression on her face and in a very proper stance. Add in a complete lack of other people, she comes off as rather ghoulish, like a spectre haunting the rubble.
An amateur set of contemporary modern ruins photography of Reims, at and around the bombed-then-burned-out Cathedral, and probably taken well before the end of the Great War, shows 12 views from a very talented photographer, documenting the damage to a beautiful city and its centerpiece.
A port or other fortified waterfront in Belgium, photographed by A. O. Fasser, is the subject of today's Month of Remembrance post - along with some brief discussion on maritime combat during the Great War.
A look at the next box marked "Belgium" in the A. O. Fasser, as well as a consideration as to why plates in poor condition still need the "deluxe treatment" as regards their conservation.
One of the items in Andrew O. Fasser's collection of stereo slides is a box, which originally held Verascope Richard 6x13 diapositives, simply marked "Belgium". Inside are 16 slides of Great War devastation; the best 8 are examined.