BRIAN MAY’S LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY
WILL HAVE A GREAT PRESENCE AT THE LONDON BOOK FAIR THIS YEAR 14-16 April 2015
A new fine-art publishing company with a mission to share the wonders of the world’s greatest 3-D images, from Victorian times to the present day.
This is the first year that The London Stereoscopic Company (LSC) will have a stand at the book fair. (Located at B4 at 6E10 – with the Independent Publishers Guild)
Following the London Stereoscopic Company’s successes with Diableries – Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell, and The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery, published with Tate Britain, further exciting plans will be announced at the book fair.
Brian May will attend on the afternoon of 15th April and will present, to publishers and literary media, forthcoming publications including the highly anticipated – QUEEN in 3-D.
This book offers a stunning portrait of the legendary rock band seen through the personal stereoscopic lenses of Brian May (and friends !) – complete with patent OWL 3-D viewer.
This is the first time Queen’s history has ever been documented in 3-D, from the early days with Freddie Mercury in the 1970s, right through to the present day.
The vast majority of these shots have never been seen before, and provide a uniquely intimate view of the World’s greatest Rock band.
The London Stereoscopic Company Imprint
A new fine-art publishing company with a mission to share the world’s greatest 3-D images, from Victorian times to the present day. Many more books are currently being planned for 2015 and beyond.
“It was my dream to bring the London Stereoscopic Company (LSC) back to life in the present day. Through our stereoscopic publications, a whole new audience can enjoy the magic of immersive 3-D in their own homes, just as our ancestors did in Victorian times. We’re restoring and reissuing stereoscopic masterpieces from the 1850s, along with new 3-D wonders of the modern world.” – Brian May
The history of The London Stereoscopic Company
Some time in 1854 ‘The London Stereoscope Company’ was born. Their business was selling stereo views and viewers to the public, and they were leaders in a boom – a craze which swept England, Europe, and eventually the United States too, of stereo photographs of every conceivable subject, which, viewed by means of a stereoscope, presented scenes in life-like three dimensions. In a world which had never experienced Television, the Movies, or the Internet, this was a major sensation. In February 1856, The London Stereoscopic Company (LSC) advertised, in the Photographic Journal, ‘The largest collection in Europe, upwards of 10,000 stereo views.
Brian May’s introduction to stereoscopy was as a child, finding 3-D cards in his breakfast cereal. In the 1950s Weetabix gave away free coloured stereo cards in their packets, along with an opportunity to send off one and sixpence for the required stereoscope to view them with. Brian, discovering that he could free-view them without the viewer too, was entranced, and quickly figured out how to make his own stereo views, and was hooked for life. Scouring Portobello Road market for stereoscopic items some years later, Brian discovered the intriguing Diableries cards, which stirred a special passion which was to lead to the Diableries book 40 years later. While studying Astronomy at Imperial College, Brian became a regular viewer at Christie’s photographic auctions, at the time a rich source of hitherto unknown stereo views from the 1850s onwards. In 2008 Brian realised his dream of recreating The London Stereoscopic Company, its aim to bring the magic of true stereoscopy to the modern world. In order to share the magic of Victorian 3-D, Brian designed his own OWL stereoscope, which is now produced, moulded in polyproylene, in Sunbury-upon-Thames, England. The OWL has become a new standard around the world in stereoscopic viewing. In 2011 Brian met a redoubtable French scholar, Denis Pellerin, one of the world’s experts on French and English Photographic History. Their two passions connected immediately, and Denis became Brian’s curator, conservator, researcher, and co-author. The London Stereoscopic Company is now restoring and republishing Victorian classic cards, as well as original stereoscopic works relating to Astronomy and vintage ‘Queen’ (the Rock Group) images. Finally this year the LSC completed the picture by entering into book publishing, each new work accompanied by an OWL Stereoscope included in the package. The first three titles are A Village Lost and Found (based on a celebrated series by TR Williams made around 1853), Diableries (the entire genre of 1860s French Devilments brought together for the first time), and The Poor Man’s Picture Gallery.
For more information go to www.londonstereo.com