part of the jonathan ross collection
Stereoviews
Risqué
French stereoscopic postcard
The desire to photograph scantily clad women and girls is as old as photography itself, and stereoscopic photography proved popular as a way to bring viewers closer to the action.
This section contains images that range from the slightly titillating to the mildly erotic, and from the 1850s to the 1920s. The majority are anonymous, but I have given credits where possible. Expect some nudity.
A comfortable size for freeviewing (parallel viewing) the images in the linked pdf documents is 125% or 150%. This can be adjusted at the top right of the document.
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.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
If you wish to reproduce any of the images from this website elsewhere on the internet, please credit jrstereocollection.com.
For permission to reproduce in any print media, please get in touch using our Contact Us page.