Photography News issue 27

Photography News Issue 27 absolutephoto.com

17 Interview

Profile BrianMay Best known as the legendary guitarist of rock supergroup Queen, Dr Brian May CBE harbours another passion, stereo photography. We take the chance to chat all things 3D

First off, what is stereo photography? Stereo photography is as old as photography itself, it goes right back to, as far as the public is concerned, the Victorians in the 1850s. Queen Victoria herself was turned on by it at the 1851 exhibition. It’s been with us ever since and it comes and goes, it can be difficult to bring it to life and make it work, and sometimes people lose patience with it. Time and time again though, people come back to it because it is the most realistic form of photography that you could possibly imagine and it’s given birth to virtual reality, which is becoming a craze now, and, of course, to all the 3D movies. But 3D has been with us pretty much since Charles Wheatstone in the 1840s discovered this principle. The principle is that you have two eyes for a reason. You have two eyes because they’re a few inches apart and they give us two slightly different views of the universe simultaneously. What your brain does is combine those two slightly different images and give you a three- dimensional picture of the universe in your head. Stereoscopic photography reproduces that effect, instead of a flat picture you’re getting a 3D solid picture of your subject. It’s magic, it really is. For those of us who discover it when we’re young, it never leaves us as a passion. What appeals to you about it? It’s magic. You’re presented with two flat pictures which may or not be very interesting or evocative, you put them in your stereoscopic viewer, you look through these lenses and you’re in a different universe. It feels as though you could walk in and touch the objects, talk to the people in the picture. In the case of the Victorian views that I’m so fond of, you’re looking at real people in Victorian times and you can look them in the eyes. You really feel like you’re there, it’s much more intensely real than any other kind of photography. When did you first discover the form? It used to be a lot of fun at breakfast time when you’d get all these toys in your cereal packet. There’d be model planes, cars, and cowboys and Indians, but Weetabix gave you a stereo card in every packet; you could send away three packet tops and they’d send you a viewer. You put these pairs of views in the viewer and suddenly the magic happens, there was this 3D space. The first thing I ever saw were some animals photographed in colour 3D and I was absolutely captivated. I very quickly figured out how it was done, so I got my little Woolworths camera and started taking pairs of pictures, moving the camera to the side between exposures. I made my own stereo pictures at the age of about ten Instead of a flat picture you’re getting a 3D solid picture of your subject. It’s magic, it really is

and I’ve never looked back since. I still have those pictures. I took pictures of my parents and my bike, and of me, too. Unlike other forms, it seems to be a very personal experience? It’s a one-to-one thing. It harks back to people sitting around their fires in Victorian times and sharing stereo cards. It’s interesting that the smartphone has really brought us back to that experience, the smartphone is a very personal, one-to-one thing. It’s absolutely perfectly suited to the medium of 3D. What’s your most prized stereo image? I have a picture of Princess Vicky, who was Queen Victoria’s daughter, on the occasion of her marriage to a German Duke. It’s a stereoscopic Daguerreotype, hand-coloured, and it’s unique, it’s the only one of its kind. Although these things can be copied, there would only be one plate in the camera at that time. It survived in the German family she married into. She became the mother of Kaiser Bill, who declared war on us – the war that became the First World War. The stereo is absolutely beautiful, it looks as fresh as the day it was made, you can look into her eyes. How do readers learn more? We have a website, londonstereo.com. There’s a wide variety of stuff on there; from historical and how to do it yourself, to where do you find the kit and all sorts of modern day things, and we keep it fairly up to date. I’ve become the London Stereoscopic Company, I’ll never make any money out of it but that’s not the reason I’m doing it. I do it because I want to share this experience with the 21st century. What gear do you need to get started? You can take stereo pictures with any kind of smartphone. I would recommend that you download an app, my favourite is called 3D Camera and it helps you to do sequential stereos. This is nothing new, basically what you do is take one picture with your weight on your left foot then transfer your weight to your right foot and that gives you your two pictures which are the stereo pair. The app enables you to put the pictures together side by side, then you can view them by putting the smartphone with my smartphone adapter and instantly you can see the view in 3D. I’ve designed an adapter for my OWL stereoscopic viewer. Once you’ve got this adapter in your OWL you just put your smartphone on the back, it attaches and then you can view all of these virtual reality movies in 3D the way that they were intended. It’s an immersive experience. Everyone who sees it just becomes entranced. Are you interested in the history of stereo photography or creating new stereo images? Both. I’mcreating at a furious rate at themoment, I absolutely love it. Together with my co-author, French photo historian Denis Pellerin, I’ve published three books on stereo and they’re all historical. One’s on the Diableries , little French devils from the 1850s; one is A Village Lost and Found , the chronicle of a Victorian farming

village, which is incredibly rare. The other is The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery , comparing Victorian stereo photography with Victorian painters. I have another one coming out very soon on a phenomenon, Crinoline: Fashion’s Most Magnificent Disaster . Crinoline had its glory days from about 1850 to 1860 and that’s exactly the first glory days of the stereoscopic picture, so we have an amazing collection of stereoscopic pictures. That’s going to be out early next year. The next issue will be a book of Queen stereos and the way we are creating that book is to go back through history. I carried a stereo camera with me all through the glory days of Queen so I have lots of pictures of us in our hay day; Freddie on stage and off and all the private moments backstage. That’s going to be an amazing portrait of backstage Queen and it’ll be out hopefully about the end of next year. The one after that will be on the solar system, it’s called Rocks and it’ll be a chronicle of as many bodies in the solar system as we can muster. We’re creating those at the moment out of pictures which are issued by NASA, ISA and various other astrophotographers both amateur and professional. That’s going to be quite something and will be out early next year.

Biography

Years in the photo industry? 55 Current location

Music studio, Surrey Last picture taken

20 minutes ago. It was taken with a stereoscopic pinhole camera, which a friend of mine sent me from America, it’s fascinating. I’ve never had a stereoscopic pinhole camera before. When youwere younger, what did youwant to bewhen you grewup? Either an astronomer or a rock star, I was very lucky in managing to achieve both in some measure. I did want to be a surgeon at some point. Dogs or cats? Cats Toast or cereal? Both Email or phone call? Both

londonstereo.com

Victorian Gems

New to stereo photography or want to learn more about it? Victorian Gems (£95) is a real all-rounder for those with an interest in 3D photography. It’s a complete kit, coming with Brian May’s patented OWL high-quality stereo viewer and three sets of cards in boxes from the Scenes in Our Village , Diableries and The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery collections. It also includes a booklet with a history on stereo photography and a how-to so you can have a go yourself. You can purchase the OWL smartphone adapter along with Victorian Gems and any of the mentioned published books on the website, all new releases will also be announced and available for purchase there too.

Above Victorian Gems, from The London Stereoscopic Company, £95, available to buy from londonstereo.com.