Lately I've been obsessed with all things 3-D, especially when
done in a MacGyver-ish low budget way. One technique I used for
an NPR Music YouTube feature is cutely called "wiggle
stereoscopy." The basic idea: take a few photos of one thing,
shifting the camera slightly for each frame, and then play them
back quickly like a flipbook. Anybody with a camera can make
stereographic photos, but here are some interesting examples
I've come across in my 3-D research. San Francisco-based artist
Joshua Heineman is taking the vintage approach. "Although stereo
photography has existed almost as long as photography itself,"
he wrote in an e-mail, "that we have a staggering collection of
stereo imagery from the past seems to be largely unknown."
Heineman digs up old stereographs at the New York Public
Library, some of which date as far back as the 19th century.
Historically, they would spring to life with the use of a
stereoscope. But Heineman converts them to animated GIFs, which
he has now compiled in a series called "