Value of old stereo slides

[P3D H a r o l d B a i z e <baize@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To continue the thread of the value of old stereo
slides...
I recently purchased 25 Realist format slides from
Don Radovich from the Sell 3-D list and I am very
pleased. Definitely worth the $10 plus shipping.
They were taken between 1953 and 1960. 
Although most of them are of boring farm
land and cows, a few of them are real gems. One of
the great things is that the photographer wrote
on each slide the camera (Realist, ST-41), film
speed, aperture, and indicated whenever the film
was not Kodachrome (the non-Kodachromes have faded).
I found that information very interesting, noting the
very slow shutter speeds used in the 50's, none of
these slides were shot at faster than 1/50th. 

What I found most valuable were the two or three
slides taken in Berkeley, right where I live! One
is a shot from the Campanile (sp?) bell tower 
taken in 1953, showing the Berkeley campus without
many of the buildings that are there now. Another
is of the Claremont Hotel, with a few 50's cars, 
Volvos and BMWs, showing that the tendency for 
Berkeley residents to preferred foreign cars has 
been around for at least 45 years.

What strikes me about the old 50's slides is that
we can learn something about what should be our
subject matter if we want to pass on something to
the next generation-- Don't take pictures of cows
and trees! They don't change. People, or at least
superficial aspects of culture, change. Stereoscopic
records of our times are what will have value to 
future collectors. So make your personal artistic 
expressions in stereo, but also go out there and take 
pictures of those teens in WAY baggy
clothes, they're going to be as funny looking as 
wide lapels and bell bottoms when we look at them
20 years from now!

HB
Harold R. Baize, Jr.                      
    baize@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 


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