Stereo Cards

The stereoscope, invented by the English physicist Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), was meant to prove that our sense of depth, when viewing objects, occurs because of the disjunction between the two eyes in binocular vision. The stereoscope relies upon the principle that each eye sees a slightly different view and that these two dissimilar pictures are united by the brain. Pictures used in stereoscopic imagery are almost identical, save for a slight difference in the amount of the view from either side (the left or right). Viewed through the stereoscope, the flat images seem to become one picture with three-dimensional depth.

Holmes stereoscope. Digital photo, 2006. Photo © Dave Pape, University of Buffalo.

You can make your own stereo cards by taking pictures with a film or digital camera, printing the images in a darkroom or on a digital printer, and mounting them to a card. See the Reframing Photography book for detailed descriptions of how to make cards and a viewer. Below is an example of Abby Bennett's stereo cards.

ABBY BENNETT, re-enacted cards.

top: Original Stereo Card.
bottom: Abby Bennett, Re-enacted card. Color photographs. 2011.