GOAn exploration of Lomography and stereography

HOLGA STEREOGRAPHYRichard Clarkson

PHOTOGRAPHIC PROPOSALSingle Sentence Proposal: “I will combine Lomography with Stereography!”

I will combine the lomo aesthetic, the knowledge gained from the experimental roll of film I shot earlier and research into Stereography and 3-D imaging into an original photographic set. In order to create a physical object I will design and make a stereoscope and stereogram cards. Throughout the process I will document my work into both the lomographic and stereographic aspects of the project.

In terms of taking the images will make a jig in which to hold two Holga 120’s together with the lenses eye distance (on average 63mm) apart from centre to centre. For the last few images I will take the holga’s off the jig and experiment with other distances and “toe in” (making the cameras not as parallel). In terms of my content I will be shooting in true lomo style, taking my camera(’s) on an adventure experimenting with doubles, light leaks and some other remediation techniques.

LOMOGRAPHY AND THE HOLGA 120:“Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, “happy ac-cidents,” and alternative film processing are often considered part of the “Lomographic Technique.”

“While most professional medium format cameras are very expensive, some inexpensive plastic imports, such as the Chinese Diana and Holga, are gaining in popularity, particularly with toy camera enthusiasts. Due to the poor quality of the cameras, the exact image captured on the negative is somewhat random in nature. These cameras often have plastic lenses that offer poor or uneven focus, light leaks that oddly colorize an image, extreme vignetting, and a multitude of other “flaws” that are generally un-desirable to photographers. While these elements certainly are “flaws” in camera design, they can produce interesting, artistic, or enjoyable results. Because of the popularity of lomography and toy camera culture, medium-format photography has seen a resurgence with amateur photographers.”

The images featured on this page are from my first experimental roll with a Holga camera. I loved taking these images and had a lot of fun experi-menting with the camera and the aesthetic that goes with lomo. Out of 12 images 6 came out showing that a little experimentation is needed to really get the hang of film cameras. I experimented with light leaks, doubling and shooting from the hip. As mentioned in the quote the interesting ways of remedeiation the images plays a large part in the lomo aesthetic. I will be making stereograms and a stereoscope as my form of remediation.

Source: Lomography website.

REMEDIATION TECHNIQUE:STEREOGRAPHY & STEREOSCOPE

For me the stereogram story begins at a very young age, In my room I had wallpaper that had a generic pattern on it and after staring at it for long enough the pattern seemed to come away from the wall, little did I know that I was training my eyes to see with Parallel vision. I had always been fascinated with “Magic Eye” Puzzles (also known as autostereograms). I was amazed by being able see a 3-D shape from a 2-D image with the naked eye. The technique for viewing these puzzles is what I mentioned above, parallel vision and is something that must be learnt.

The stereogram was discovered by Charles Wheatstone in 1838 and was very popular thought the 19th Century. Stereogram’s use the same prin-cipals as the magic eye puzzles and work the same way our eyes do. As predators humans capture two images side by side and align in the brain to create a depth perception for judging distance to prey. The trick for stereo-grams is to force the two images to align correctly in our brains while still allowing the eye to focus on the image.

After researching into stereograms I decided to create my own. This result is to the left. This is taken with my digital camera in the “cha cha” method (take one image and shift camera to one side about 1/30th of the distance from the camera to the closest image and take the second image). This was extremely easy to create and helped me to work where to go next.

Source 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stereogram_Tut_Random_Dot_Shark.png

Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:XEyeStCdNYCSmall.jpg

The cha cha method would not be suitable for my set as I wanted to take some images of moving objects, so I decided to use two Identical Holga 120’s and rig them together. After additional research I found the optimal distance (IDP) to be 63mm apart from center to center. For half the images I would use this jig then for the other half I would experiment with larger distances apart and “toe in” (making the cameras not as parallel).

As I mentioned earlier some people can use parallel vision to view stereograms but this can be difficult for some and can take time to master. The use of a stereoscope or stereogram Viewer can make the process much easier and sometimes more effec-tive. There are endless different types of stereograms which can be categorized into: Holmes Style, Mirrored, Lensless and Slideviewer. I created a mock up of each to experiment with and found the Holmes style stereoscope to be the most interest-ing and effective.

HOLMES STYLE STEREOSCOPE I, II & III

This style stereoscope has been around for centuries and variations of it are still sold under its name today. My design will be inspired from it, tak-ing the best elements and attributes into a 21st century design.

Important aspects are folding or removable handle, adjustable focal length and center stabilized design.The lenses used are often 4-7 inch focal length and have a magnification value of between 2 and 4.

This is my template to be lazer cut into 1mm thick PETG (clear flexible plastic). I wanted my stereo viewer to be made to “pack flat” and mass producible but at the same time reduce wastage and be functional. There is no tape or glue required as I have designed it to hold together strongly with tabs and folds. The template itself could be made 3 times over from a standard sheet of 600 x 600 plastic and has the potential to be made from recycled plastics or even card.

Source: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/3d/stereo/3dgallery3.htm

PRINTING ONTOACETATE:The medium I chose to print onto was Acetate as the imperfections in the film used suit the lomo aesthetic very well. Also the clear nature of acetate means that when used with my clear plastic stereoscope the user could be able to see beyond the image. The effect from this is rather uncanny as it creates two depth perceptions for the viewer, es-pecially if they walk around while using the viewer. I stumbled upon this experience while using my viewer and wanted to enhance and implement it into the design of my stereogram cards and stereoscope.

If the viewer wants to see the images on a plain while background all that is required is inserting the white card that comes with the ste-reoscope. There is also a diffusing card if the user wants a diffused backlit experience.

3-D STEREOENVIRONMENTAs my project has two levels of presentations a physical and a digital I wanted those not using my built stereoscope to still share in the expe-rience. To do this I will be using a 3-D stereoenvironment that uses a system similar to that of modern day 3-D cinemas. It works under the same principal as any stereogram viewer in that it tricks the eye into seeing two different images. In this case the environment I will be using uses polarizing lenses on two different projectors, the projectors are thus polarized in two different directions that correlate with the polarization in the lenses of the glasses the viewer wears. To aid in the reflectiveness of the polarization a purpose build silver screen is used.

In using this method for presentation the viewer may, in essence, view stereograms in a then and now style. The physical stereoscope is very similar to how the earliest 3-D images where viewed and the digital stereoenvironment is an example of where 3-D imaging is currently at, such as in movies like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. This look at where stereography has come to where it is now ties in very nicely to the ideas behind the resurgence in Lomography and in film. In shoot-ing with the Holga we are given a window into what photography was and can compare it to what it has become. The resulting knowledge tells us that there is room for both in the world of photography and stereography and that perhaps the past, the present and the future of the two artforms need representation from all tenses to truly flourish.

FINAL IMAGES:Some of the things I took into consideration in taking the images was trying to get a large range of depths, such as near and far objects. Over-lapping objects proved to be very effective and also fast moving objects or flying birds created a frozen 3-D moment. Other than that I immersed myself into lomo culture and snapped whatever I came across on my ad-ventures around town.

The images I have created are as much about the process of lomography and stereography as the content of the images themselves, in this way you can feel the depth and aesthetic of each of the images without necessarily viewing them with a stereoscope.