Ian Ference's 3D blog on all things stereographic, from classic scopes & stereoviews to historical context & modern analysis
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, and thus, the Second World War. And of course, Heinrich Hoffman and Raumbild were there to capture it. While we can't celebrate this anniversary, we can study it - with 80 stereoviews split between two posts. This one focuses on "Die Soldaten des Führers im Felde Band I: Der Feldzug in Polen".
The Free City of Danzig was created at the end of the Great War by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. This was intended to be a slap in the face to Germany - and two decades later, 80 years ago to the day, Germany fired the first shots here to jumpstart the Second World War.
With a heavy-duty post inbound this coming Sunday, let's put on our anoraks and head on down to the railyards - because it's time for a bit of trainspotting with Stanley Long and company!
For our final Sunday in The Netherlands, we're back in Amsterdam - about half a century before Raumbild's "Holland". Expect canals, wooden shoes, quaint street scenes - and a couple of really great stereoviews from KVC!
We've looked at some great VistaScreen, some interesting VistaScreen, and some just plain silly VistaScreen on this blog. But here, we're going to look at the absolute dregs of VistaScreen - which also happens to be one of the most popular sets the company produced during its mid-period in the late 1950s.
In this installment of Sunday Travels, we take a look at Delft, The Hague, and Leiden - all in the areas around last week's subject, Rotterdam. These views prove to be far more superior, as they spend less time buying into stereotypes, and more time actually capturing their subjects.
Douglas Adams hated Heathrow Airport. My wife likes it. Somewhere in between these points of view, there was the 1950s "London Airport", as captured here by VistaScreen. In this essay, we'll explore the nature of documentary stereography that was probably boring when shot but has become more interesting with the passage of time.
Doctor A. O. Fasser took this 3D photo of two men fixing up a tire on a Nieuport 10, most likely in the spring of 1916. Here we take a look at the sesquiplane, before taking a look at the importance of negatives - both in general, and relative to the Fasser Collection.
In this installment of Sunday Travels, we take a look at Rotterdam, the second-largest city in The Netherlands, through century-old American eyes. We see some gorgeous scenes - and some dubious editorial influence on the part of Keystone View Company.
Benjamin White bought a Napoleonic-era coastal fort in 1957. Instead of turning it into a museum, his vision was a huge model village - and the bizarre Blue Grotto Aquarium. And who was on the scene to capture two weird attractions in one old fort? Why, Stanley Long of VistaScreen, of course!