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.
One-shot #33 – Fixing up a Nieuport 10 Sesquiplane by A.O. Fasser
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.
VistaScreen’s “Venezia”: Sterescopic 3D photography of the canals, monuments, and buildings of 1950s Venice
In our first full look at a non-Anglocentric series from VistaScreen, in the bilingually-captioned "Venezio". Featuring above-average stereography, this series raises some questions about the provenance of the images - and raises doubts about whether Stanley Long was involved with these at all!
Depression-Era Santa: “The Night Before Christmas”
Unlike our previous "Christmas present" from Tru Vue, this 1933 filmstrip is not a creepy, low-budget romp through a garage and then a weird scene in a little girl's darkened living room. Rather, it is a fairly interesting peek into messaging for kids during the Great Depression, with MUCH higher production value.
Raumbild Paris 1937: Introduction, ten images, and English text
Probably the best repository for stereoscopic photography of the Exposition Internationale Paris 1937 is a book published late in the year - with stereoviews by notorious Nazi photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, and some text that just drips with propaganda. This post takes a first look at this Raumbild album, and the context and subtext surrounding it.
1934 Colombia in 3D – by STEAMSHIP!
Colombia is a beautiful country that can be visited via Colombian Steamship Lines! This Tru Vue filmstrip features 3D photography of Colombia: the ruins of a fort, passengers disembarking from a steamship, a man selling a monkey, the home of the President of Colombian Steamship Lines, a torture house of the Spanish Inquisition, and more. Steamships!
DIY: Digitizing Tru Vue at Home
In this post, I explain the methodology I came up with for making high-quality digital reproductions of Tru Vue stereographic film rolls without cutting the film up or damaging the emulsion in any way.
Petrified Forest and Painted Desert: Yes, you can digitize Tru Vue.
Since someone recently told me that it was "impossible" to properly digitize Tru Vue 3D photographic reels, I went ahead and digitized #809, "Petrified Forest and Painted Desert" - and they actually turned out pretty great! Here are all 14 images as stereo pairs & anaglyphs.
Fasser Collection: Belgian Waterfront & Port of Zeebrugge
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.
Acquisition: Brentano’s “Verdun”
A new box of slides from Brentano's - stamped "Verdun" on the front - gives me the opportunity to make some side-by-side comparisons of both duplicate and same-subject images from my collection.

