About
What is stereomap?
stereomap is a platform to explore animated stereographs in their historical and geographical context through maps. The site was born out of a recognition that many stereographs document specific places that are best experienced in their geographic location and in juxtaposition to what is built there today. stereomap hopes to further the NYPL's vision for stereo views "to reveal the way the world appeared through the photographers' and audiences' preconceptions even as they mirror that long-vanished world's physical and contextual reality." This site was created by me, Joe Carrano, as a project for Digital Public History using images from the New York Public Library and the Stereogranimator. Currently, a New York City map is available with more possible in the future.
What is a stereograph?
A stereograph or stereoscopic view is a series of two consecutive photographs of nearly identical images like the one pictured above. These images are put on a card to be utilized in a viewer that recreates a sense of depth when looking through it. This effect is caused because human eyes are set slightly apart and therefore each eye views the world at a slightly different angle. The brain combines these the images taken in from both eyes into one coherent image. The stereoscopic viewer utilizes this effect and isolates one image per eye, allowing our brains to meld the images and create the optical illusion of spatial depth.
Stereographic images were widely popular from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century, but waned with the advent of movies and television. From amateur to professional productions on a range of photo mediums the graphic material covered topics such as landscapes, architecture, urban and country life, among many others. To learn more about the history and process of stereoscopic photography check out this NYPL page.
Stereographic images were widely popular from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century, but waned with the advent of movies and television. From amateur to professional productions on a range of photo mediums the graphic material covered topics such as landscapes, architecture, urban and country life, among many others. To learn more about the history and process of stereoscopic photography check out this NYPL page.
Why animate these photos?
Animating these photos through the Stereogranimator takes the two images and emulates the effect that the original items produce when seen through a viewer. As the animated GIF above demonstrates, it does not exactly produce the result intended with an original stereo view. However, this process does allow people in the present to both experience the items in the context of how users did in the past and to understand the subjects of the images in a way that feels more realistic than a static picture. In addition to animating these images, emulation can be achieved through turning these images into anaglyphs that create the classic red and cyan 3-D effect visible with 3-D glasses. You can see an example of this above as well. I chose animation over anaglyphs because it does not require extra equipment and can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection.
Questions? Comments? Want to get involved?
If you have any desire to contact me regarding this project, see the Contact page. There are many collections of stereographs of different places just waiting to be animated and mapped. While the Stereogranimator only has NYPL and Boston Public Library images integrated for use, the easy Flickr integration of the site allows you to use outside images. Simply download digitized stereographs from other places and put them onto your Flickr account and animate! I encourage those interested to make their own animations and send them to me. You make'em, I'll map'em.