Art of Stereography

Three-dimensional stereoviews were wildly popular in Europe and America in the mid-19th century. Yet public infatuation fueled highbrow scorn, and even when the cards fell from favor critics remained disdainful of the format. Thus a dazzling body of photographic work has unjustly been buried. This book unearths the stereograph as an artistic medium and explores the subjects, composition, lighting, tonality, blocking and depth that make the best images so compelling. Overlooked photographers are celebrated, such as one who refused to play favorites during a bitter war and found humanity on both sides. Another took a favorite American glen and uncovered menace at every turn. Another found strange parallels among trees, rocks, waterfalls and tourists, anticipating the formal inventions of Modernist pioneers Cezanne and Seurat. Stereographers are not measured against ""high art"" photographers - the best practitioners, like film directors or television producers, fused artistry with commercial appeal.