Coming back to the topic of stereo photography, a few months ago I realized how tired I have become of anaglyphic images. What I’ve always found lacking in anaglyphs is the diversity of colours one can find in 2D photography. It is a fact after all that the method of applying cyan and red shades to the image has a tendency of degrading or even taking away certain colours and making the whole picture look dimmer. I am among persons who enjoy monochrome photography, but when it comes to colour photography, I prefer to be able to enjoy the whole spectrum of colours.
Several weeks ago the postman delivered to me this strange box you can see above. I ordered it from a Polish online shop with stereoscopic equipment (Stereos).
In Stereo World Magazine, Vol 27, No 4. you can find the following words about this curious 3D viewer:
"... for the quick fusion of nearly any format pair --or several pairs at once-- the PokeScope is one of the best designed and crafted devices ever to reach the market."
What possible effect can you achieve with a small black box with two glass prisms, which measures 2" x 2" x 1.3"? Someone must be a bit overenthusiastic. But why not open it and see how this thing works.
Hmmm, looks rather cool, uh? Now not only it is a strange black box, but one hell of a gimmick! Rather fishy, I remember telling myself. But, imagine how impressed I was when I viewed a few of my old stereo pairs in their full glory, the whole spectrum of colours just the way it is in real life!
And this is not the end. The most stunning feature of Pokecope is that it can be used for pictures much bigger than your computer screen. You can, for instance, project your stereo pair onto your wall and adjust Pokescope to these larger dimensions. Someone who came up with the idea of constructing this device has done a great favour to the art of stereo photography and, perhaps it is only a dream, but it would be wonderful to see it receive as much attention as it’s stereoscopic predecessors.
I will now have to be careful not to get too distracted. Apart from undertaking the task of reproducing all of my “double shots” into vertical stereo pairs (the best result you can get from using this method is with vertical images) - a task quite time-consuming, which will take me a year or so to complete – I have started collecting antique stereo views scattered throughout the internet (I will say more about them in my next post). What a terrible compulsion! I sometimes feel like screaming: Eureka! Pokescope!
People devoting their time to creating things related with art frequently derive their pleasure from fulfilling their passions entirely for themselves. (this rule of course doesn't apply to everyone). Nevertheless, it is always rewarding to see oneself getting noticed by others. It was a real pleasure for me to accidentally find, while surfing on the net, the following page:
I am really grateful to Sean Gleeson for taking his time to describe my gallery on his webpage. What a surprise! Those who read my words and are interested in anaglyphs should stop at Sean Gleeson's website for longer.
The site is full of interesting information on the art of anaglyphic photography. http://www.swell3d.com/
During the following weeks I will be uploading my photos from my trip to Germany. Prepare for some stereo from Stuttgart, Nurnberg, Abenberg and Bamberg! These anaglyphs would have never been created, if not thanks to Christian Moths' incredible hospitality. Thank you Christian for that New Year's Eve madness!
I have just ordered the first two volumes of collected works of Jean Ray, the Belgian master of weird fiction, frequently referred to as the “Belgian Poe”. I’ve been trying to purchase any of his works for some time now. There are two collections of his stories in English, both of them very rare and pricey: My Own Private Specters from Midnight House (1999) and Ghouls in my Grave from Berkley Publishing Corporation (1965). After futile attempts at locating reasonably priced copies of these titles I decided to try buying Ray’s collections in the original language: French. Œuvres complètes de Jean RAY, tome 1 et 2, collects majority of his weird fiction (6 collections) except for his novel Malpertuis (which I’ll try to locate later) and his adventure/detective Harry Dickinson stories (in which I’m less interested). The order will come from France, and due to sheer weight of these volumes (over 2 kilograms) I had to involve my aunt in Orlean to provide me with her address. The book will be later recollected by my father who is currently returning from his yacht travel from Cuba and will be stopping at his sister’s house. Yes, it is a bit complicated. Sometimes it takes an international adventure to get some of the titles I’m interested in. Too much reading makes my tastes increasingly capricious. :(
"Your eyes are now fused with those fantastic lenses, and your sight is one with its object. And what exactly is that object? Obviously, it is everything that fascinates, everything that has power over your gaze and your dreams. You can not even conceive the wish to look away. And even if there are no simple images to see, nonetheless there is a vision of some kind, an infinite and overwhelming scene expanding before you. And the vastness of this scene is such that even the dazzling diffusion of all the known universes cannot convey its wonder. Everything is so brilliant, so great, and so alive: landscapes without end that are rolling with life, landscapes that are themselves alive. Unimaginable diversity of form and motion, design and dimension. And each detail is perfectly crystalline, from the mammoth shapes lurching in the outline against endless horizons to the minutest cilia wriggling in an obscure oceanic niche. Even this is only a mere fragment of all that there is to see and to know. There are labyrinthine astronomies, discrete systems of living mass which yet are woven together by a complex of intersections, at points mingling in a way that mutually affects those systems involved, yielding instantaneous evolutions, constant transformations of both appearance and essence. You are witness to all that exists or ever could exist. And yet, somehow concealed in the shadows of all that you can see is something that is not yet visible, something that is beating like a thunderous pulse and promises still greater visions: all else is simply its membrane enclosing the ultimate thing waiting to be born, preparing for the cataclysm which will be both the beginning and the end. To behold the prelude to this event must be an experience of unbearable anticipation, so that hope and dread merge into a new emotion, one corresponding perfectly to the absolute and the wholly unknown. The next instant, it seems, will bring with it a revolution of all matter and energy. But the seconds keep passing, the experience grows more fascinating without fulfilling its portents, without extinguishing itself in revelation. And although the visions remain active inside you, deep in your blood - you now awake." (Thomas Ligotti, "The Spectacles in the Drawer")
Florence 10 3D Anaglyph by ~yellowishhaze on deviantART Hello, everyone. I'm finally back from a long trip throughout Italy and I'm very glad to present my new anaglyphs from three of the most beautiful cities of that country. I'm particularly satisfied with the ones from Venice. It was a helluva job to succeed in producing a good anaglyph on a winter day in a city that is permanently "floating" on water. Not only does water spoil the effect, but the passing boats and gondolas plus people crowding in the narrow passages simply make it nearly impossible. Oh, and those darn birds...
These are dreams dreamed by dreamers who are awake. - GJ Ballard
Upcoming Subjects
PHANTOM LIMBS IN LUCID DREAMS, WHO WROTE "THE VANISHING LIFE AND FILMS OF EMMANUEL ESCOBADA"?, SKEPTICISM AND LUCID DREAMS, HYPNOPOMPIC NIGHTMARES, POKESCOPE
