Tue
Nov 15 2011
11:38 am
Book Signing Upcoming
By: Sandra Clark

Check Wendy Smith's interview with Michael Kaplan at
(link...)

-- s.

Topics:
R. Neal's picture

Cool 3D camera.

Submitted by R. Neal on Tue, 2011/11/15 - 1:24pm.

Cool 3D camera.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

*

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Tue, 2011/11/15 - 2:02pm.

What an interesting enterprise this is, Michael--and I hope you do sometime soon produce this "images of Knoxville" reel!

About this statement from the article...

Photography was a relatively new art form when stereoscopic photography, which uses two images taken about two-and-a-half inches (the distance between the eyes) apart, became the rage. The images merged when viewed with a device called a stereoscope, and postcards with dual images allowed our great-grandmothers to feel like they were visiting far-off tourist attractions.

...some of us are old enough that our grandmothers, not great-grandmothers, owned stereoscopes.

Both my grandmother and her sister, my great-aunt, owned them, along with boxes and boxes of slides. They were handed to us youngsters as amusements when we came to visit, with strict instructions that we should be careful not to tear the paper cards inserting and removing them from the wooden stereoscope.

Anyway, looking forward to the Knox reel!

michael kaplan's picture

tamara, thanks for the

Submitted by michael kaplan on Tue, 2011/11/15 - 3:25pm.

tamara, thanks for the comments. i've actually been taking 3D photographs of knoxville for 25 years, and we've produced a few knoxville 'demo' reels.

btw, if anyone knows of old stereo viewcards of knoxville (likely photographed by McCrary and Branson, 130 Gay Street) we'd love to see and scan them for a future publication. while we think many were produced, these are now extremely rare and usually found only in private collections.

Tamara Shepherd's picture

Old stereo viewcards

Submitted by Tamara Shepherd on Tue, 2011/11/15 - 9:24pm.

Have you checked with Thompson Photo? Years ago, a friend who worked there had collected reams of old photos, as had many of his co-workers. I suppose Thompson family members have collected even more?

Their website mentions archival photos for sale, but doesn't mention stereo viewcards per se.

michael kaplan's picture

At one point, Ed Thompson

Submitted by michael kaplan on Wed, 2011/11/16 - 1:55pm.

At one point, Ed Thompson tried to track down the McCrary & Branson collection, but without success. Apparently the building burned along with its contents. I've also spoken with Jack Neely and Steve Cotham (ETHS) and neither knew of any sources. And neither the State of Tennessee, University of Tennessee, nor Library of Congress have any significant holdings of this material. The few examples I've found have been in private collections. I've alerted Book Eddy (Central Street Books) about my search, as John occasionally comes across (and buys) stereoscopic view cards.

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