Stereoviews
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Today we have Virtual Reality, previously there was 3-D...
and a century ago, near the  beginning of the photographic era, 
there was... The Stereoview!

Progress with photography at the end of the 19th century spelled the end of reliance on artists impressions, or mis-impressions (see our wonderful horse-tailed llamas in the Art Gallery), for our knowledge of the appearance of camelids. And one of the first applications in photography was the ambitious and remarkably successful attempt to re-create nature in three dimensions, with stereoviews. 

What early photography may have lost through lack of colour (but whose sepia tones we now consider as giving great atmosphere) stereoviews more than made up for with their often breathtaking eerily-natural depth.

Our collection of stereoviews of llamas give a glimpse of their world before South America opened up to the world of tourism and the time when they were still "South America's best kept secret".

Unfortunately these two dimensional  views of our stereoviews  do not begin to do them full justice although if you look at them through 3-D glasses you will get a better idea of their wonderful effect. 

Click on the image to enlarge and then view through 3-D glasses for best effect!

wpe2.jpg (21161 bytes) A group of llamas outside the La Paz brewery, Bolivia, waiting to be loaded up. 
wpe5.jpg (56094 bytes) "Pack-train of donkeys and Llamas on the way to Arequipa - Chachina, Peru". European Publishers Underwood & Underwood.
wpe7.jpg (48821 bytes) A herd of alpacas in Peru 
wpe1.jpg (11250 bytes) Entitled Llama mother and young, this stereoview actually shows a guanaco feeding its baby - and highlights one of the problems created by hybrid breeding in zoos which did not recognise the difference! 
  More to follow...