Stereo Photography and the Stereotyped City
This proposal focuses on the interaction of stereo photography as a means for mediated urban experience and the (ideological inspired) representation of a number of European cities (Munich, Nuremberg, Salzburg, Genève, Montreux, Venice, ...) in the pre-World War I era. The study is based on a large and complete (private but anonymous) collection of about 950 black and white stereographic photos on glass plates (17 x 8,5 cm), all taken by an unknown Belgian photographer during the period 1905-1918. The last ones (1918) being the Belgian cities Middelkerke and Nieuwpoort in ruins just after the war. It seems clear that the nightmare of the Great War put an end to this stereographic dream to capture all these cities in their late 19th century glory, framing them as the territory of the upper class. Main theses will be: 1. Stereo photography as an immersive but static vision on a world in an attempt to ‘freeze’ it and to save it in a world becoming increasingly dynamic. 2. Resulting from this upper class ‘conservative’ vision on these cities, one can reveal a hidden (social) agenda. The photographs are not accentuating typical features of the cities in their individuality, but (with the exception of Venice) create the impression of being aspects of one great imaginary idealized and ‘stereotypted’ city.
The study will explore this remarkable collection as a whole, as representative for the ‘belle époque’ vision of high society on city life and urban environment, as well as on the close reading of the photographic representation in a selection of photographs. Some of the selected stereographic images will be presented as anaglyphs (red and blue colored), so that they can be seen in 3D, wearing anaglyph eyeglasses.