part of the jonathan ross collection
Stereoviews
'Articles of Vertú’ by T.R.Williams
Introduction
Collecting Stereoviews
In 1976 my father passed on a copy of ‘Wonders of the Stereoscope’ by John Jones which he had been given to review. It included a stereoscope and set of reproduction cards and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at this survey of Victorian 3D photography, but afterwards put it away on a bookshelf and didn’t look at it again until the early 1990s by which time it had turned out to be a very prescient gift.
I had been immersed in holography, the ultimate in late 20th century 3D, since the late 1970s and had gradually begun to have a greater curiosity about earlier forms of three dimensional image making. A friend took me to a Photograph Collectors Fair where I was able to browse through hundreds, if not thousands, of mostly 19th century stereo views and acquire examples for as little as £1 each. It was irresistible, and has proved to be a subject of enduring fascination.
by Kasia Wozniak
Jonathan Ross has been collecting stereoscopic photographs since the 1980s and has been posting images from his collection on Instagram for several years (@jross286).He is now digitising and cataloguing the material to make a more permanent database on this website.
Bookmark this page to see new listings as they appear, with direct links to a repository on Dropbox.
Discover an Extensive Collection of Holograms,
the ultimate 20th century successor to stereoscopy,
on the Jonathan Ross Hologram Collection website.
Recently Added
George Washington Wilson
New sections 19 – 20 have been added which take the total number of stereo views for this photographer to almost 800 images.
Tissue Stereoviews
Unidentified Photographers
Amongst the Ruins
Figures in the Landscape
This is an ongoing project and there are more scans to come. New stereoviews will be added here.
Attributions of stereoviews without a maker’s label or blindstamp may be reconsidered as new information appears.
If you disagree with any of my attributions, please let me know why using the contact page.
Stereoviews replicate the way we see the world by taking two views of a scene, one from the right eye position and another from the left. When these are mounted together and viewed in a stereoscope, the brain merges them into a 3-dimensional or ‘stereoscopic’ image.
The technique emerged in the 1850s, soon after the invention of photography, through the work of Charles Wheatstone and Sir David Brewster, and developed into a worldwide craze with thousands of practitioners.
Stereo photography has gone out of fashion several times over the past couple of centuries, only to be rediscovered by later generations. Most of the images on this site are by European photographers working in the 1850s and 60s.
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