Mid nineteenth century: cinema is yet to be born, photography is at its very beginnings. Always on the look-out for wonders and marvels \u2013 it was the heyday of Universal Expositions \u2013 men devise stereoscopy.<\/p>\n
Stereoscopic, or three-dimensional, photography is based on a very simple optical principle: portraying the same subject from two different viewpoints \u2013 distanced between them about as much as the human eyes are \u2013 it is possible, thanks to a special viewer (the stereoscope), to reproduce the illusion of depth.<\/p>\n
The world went berserk: millions of \u2018stereoscopic couples\u2019 were produced by the most eminent photographers of the time, and sold by specialised companies to a rapt public. Today, in what has become known as the Digital Era, this trick may make us smile (but make no mistake about it, it still retains much of its charm). The artistic and documentary value of these images remains, however, intact: the best-known monuments, quiet landscapes, \u2018instantaneous\u2019 views of cities and countryside (with an almost cinematic feel to them) will plunge you back in the streets and hills of a long-vanished Tuscany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1538,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[105],"product_tag":[1284,1605],"class_list":["post-1539","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-miscellaneous","product_tag-photography","product_tag-tuscany","first","instock","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n