P3D Re: Uniqueness of the original, II

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Roberts wrote:

>There is a tendency to think of the physical stereo photo as a unique,
>hand-crafted item. [when shooting slides]

Many times good black and white prints require a lot of darkroom work
(dodging and burning) which essentially makes them unique hand-crafted
items.

I believe Stan White, Bill Walton and other stereo artists do a lot of
work on each stereo card (I know Stan is hand-painting some of them)
producing essentially unique, hand-crafted items.

Slides have traded the option of making easy and good quality copies
for the option of directly viewing the original.  There are people
who find the back-lighted or projected slides being more effective,
realistic, and having more impact than prints.

There are those who actually find the uniqueness and "originality"
of slides, appealing.  There those who see nothing wrong with dealing
with an original photograph which cannot be easily and perfectly
duplicated.

People who collect pictures are particularly pleased to find 
original pictures.  You can collect commercial VM and stereo views
but there is a special thrill in getting someone's stereo slides
from the 50s where you know that each picture is unique.

"In-camera" duplication is recommended for slides.  The cheapest
and most convenient way to make duplicates is to shoot more than
one pictures at a time.

The fear of damaging or losing an original picture can be overcome
by having many good original pictures.

My main concern in comparing prints with slides is the small size of 
slides.  You need special equipment to see them (viewers, projectors)
Some people do not have the equipment or, because of some unique
features (usually problems) with their vision (like unusually small
interpupilar distance, thick glasses, etc.) cannot view those small 
pictures properly and tend to reject or consider them snapshots, 
inferior to prints, etc.  This is, I believe, one of the reasons
that people today are giving away family stereo slides.  They cannot
view them properly and they do not know how appealing they are.
They usually ask: "How can I make prints from those?" (2D prints
is what they want).  The mass market is demanding prints today.
Bill Walton is working to make stereo prints more popular... 
One day, not long from now, others might carry the opposite
task:  Keep the stereo slides alive...

George Themelis


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