Pictured from L to R: Brian May, Darwin Foye, Elena Vidal
Brian May, guitarist of the glam rock band Queen, has been collecting stereoscopic photographs for over forty years. While on tour in cities all over the world, he would locate and purchase these vintage 3D photos, adding to his ever growing collection.
One collection that fascinated him, was that of 1850's photographer T. R. Williams, who was a successful stereo portraitist, and creator of still lifes and artistic views.
The subject of these particular photos were an idyllic village in England, but May did not know where they were taken. So he posted a photo of a church on his personal website, and within 36 hours, received numerous responses, all pointing to a quaint village of Hinton Waldrist in Oxfordshire.
Brian and his co-author/historian, Elena Vidal visited the village, and were able to locate every site that was photographed. Interestingly, the modern-day villagers were unaware of the historical photographs, thus the title of the book, A Village Lost And Found.
On July 27, 2010, I had the pleasure of seeing May's lecture about this book, and on 3D stereoscopy, which was not only educational, but quite fascinating! He projected a sampling of the collection of 150 year old images on a screen in 3D, and members of the audience wore passive 3D glasses to view them in all their realism and splendor.
Brian has an informative website detailing the creation of the book, as well as vintage and contemporary stereoscopic Queen images, viewable in 3D if you have a viewing device, one of which comes with his book. (In fact, he designed and patented his own viewing device which he calls the "Owl", due to its shape and all-seeing nature.)
Visit his stereoscopic website:
More on T.R. Williams:
