Ian Ference's 3D blog on all things stereographic, from classic scopes & stereoviews to historical context & modern analysis
The Jordan/Ference Collection has recently acquired the last of the "Poilu, Balloons & Gouraud" collection. Now we need your help in putting the puzzle pieces together! Join us for some crowdsourced archival research!
A preview of 10 highlights from the Honorat Collection, consisting of nearly 200 examples of amateur French stereography of the Great War.
This year's Remembrance Day post focuses on the work of Cl. Gueidan, a stereographer who sold some of his non-stereo work to the Section photographique de l'armée. He had incredible access to High Command, but also focused on Marsouins (colonial marines), hospitals, and ruins, creating some incredible works in the process.
On the 101st anniversary of the Armistice, we take a look at 101 unique stereoscopic 3D photos - taken by amateurs, and not sold commercially.
I have a few hours to kill on my birthday before my wife gets home. So what better way than by posting a Top 10 list of stereoviews that have previously been posted on this blog?
One of the parcels which arrived on "Christmas in July" two days ago contained a wooden box - with about 500 amateur glass stereoviews contained within. Today, we take a look at two boxes at random, in an attempt to determine what this acquisition consists of, who might have taken it, and whether it is, indeed, a cohesive collection, as opposed to a random pile of amateur glass.
In an attempt to start sorting through some of the piles of random amateur glass stereoviews in my collection, I picked one at random. It appears to be a family at wintertime, somewhere in Germany, in the early- or mid-1930s.
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.
With most sets of stereographic images, you can get a sense of what's going on from the captions, action, provenance - all sorts of things. Here, I'm more or less at a loss - but the stereoviews are pretty darn cool!
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.