stereographs

besides primarily the "ViewMaster" "toys" i saw as a kid, my true introduction to stereography was by courtesy of David Hlynsky's IMAGE NATION magazine, issue 22 in march 198o, edited by Michael Sowdon, "The Extra-Dimensional Stereo Photography Issue" (which included a divergent-lensed viewer in an envelope mounted on the inside rear cover): 2o contemporary photographers adventuring beyond the static bidimensional image.
i began my own attempts not all that long after but, slowlearner that i am & not actually owning a useful camera until well into the '9os, i didn't get anywhere in the genre & was daunted to even try but had a minor satori occur "recently" that resulted in the purple plaid shot here, which started the building blocks bouncing at long last.
for those unfamiliar with viewing this medium, it's the difference between convergent & divergent vision. the trick is to disengage yr eyes from vectoring (convergent) & allow them to drift apart so that the left eye views the left image & the right eye the right image (divergent), which pair will then fuse in yr brain to create the illusion of depth. this can be simply done by focussing on a point far away then sliding the double-image into view & letting yr eyes stray relaxedly into fused double-focus (it can help to pick a specific detail within the photo to focus on). some of these images are a little too wide between pairs of focal points to be able to easily achieve this & it's recommended that those that give you trouble should be shrunk to about 8o% to enable going walleyed with less strain (increasing the distance between yr eyeballs & the screen can also help).
none of these were shot with a special convergent-lensed camera: they're all the result of depthstudy experiments with semiparallel pairs shot with a regular digital camera & subjected to reälignments & merciless croppings afterward.
my deepest thanks to David & Michael ("Fringe Research") & the other participants in that issue that gave my eyeballs a good yankin', especially (besides the editors) Sandor Bodo, Sandy Fairbairn, Connie Hitzeroth, Thaddeus Holownia & J.Zweig. it is indeed a pleasure to be able to finally pay a primitive form of homage to what i was shown there 4o years ago.