Paris in 3D: From Stereoscopy to Virtual Reality 1850-2000

Co-published with the Musee Carnavalet of Paris in both French and English editions, Paris in 3D will be the first of its kind. Although a fascinating subject to both specialist and amateur alike, there is no publication which offers a comprehensive, historical survey of the techniques underpinning 3D photography. This fully illustrated book sets out to do just that. Paris in 3D records and describes the various techniques of 3D photography from stereoscopy, photosculpture and anaglyphs to holograms, 3D computer imagery and virtual reality. The themes are equally diverse, ranging from portraiture, still lifes and cityscapes to World Wars I and II, the Liberation and colonialism, from erotica and advertising to fine art. Paris as subject or location is the unifying link.

Although the book accompanies a key exhibition, it is a stand-alone title and comes with a 3D-viewer to read the images. A timeline chronicles both the major developments in 3D photography and the socio-historical events against which they occurred. In addition to complementary texts by leading lights in the field, all technical terms covered in the book are fully explained in a glossary.

The official publication which marks the exhibition of the same name in Paris [October 2000-Janurary 2001] as part of the Paris photography festival, Mois de la Photo.

A unique and unparalleled view of an ever popular city

Although stereoscopic views--the first 3D images--were invented by English physicist Charles Wheatstone, they didn't catch on until their debut in Paris in the 1850s. The City of Light has been an inspiration ever since to amateur and professional photographers with a taste for hyperrealism. Paris in 3D, which comes with a pair of red-and-green plastic lenses and a cardboard viewer, offers a grab bag of Parisian subjects from the past 150 years, ready to snap into eye-popping focus. This is a fantastic variety show, with everything from aerial perspectives, architectural monuments, and eye-witness views of famous historical events to advertising imagery, vintage nudes, and contemporary art projects.

The authors discuss technical aspects of the various 3D processes in enthusiastic detail. You're probably familiar with holography, but how about anaglyphs, line screen and lenticular systems, photo-sculpture and auto-stereograms? In recent years, computer-generated 3D imagery helped design the new Météor line on the Métro and made possible a Web site allowing subscribers to create figures who roam specific Parisian districts. But technology is just part of the story. The text also surveys public attitudes (largely disapproving in the early days, when pornography was rampant) and muses over the continuing allure of this form of trick photography.

Even if philosophical discussions and explanations of how things work make your eyes glaze over, the photographs themselves are, as the Michelin Guides say, "worth the trip." From glimpses of the Paris Commune barricades of 1871 to an advertisement for a massage school for the blind, this is a hugely inclusive portrait of Paris, at once lofty and banal, cultured and crass, steeped in history and living for the moment. --Cathy Curtis