A couple of images came from Russia too,’ Brian reveals, ‘and we debated whether to include them. In fact, the book had already gone to press by the time of the Ukraine invasion, but we wondered if we should have taken them out. But I thought, hey, these are images made by common people like us, and they have no influence on their government. Brian is now 75, but shows little sign of slowing down. He continues to tour with Queen, as well as doing solo work and, of course, is a committed stereoscopy evangelist. So does he personally find stereoscopy is good for him? We expected the surface to be pretty rigid, kind of like if you touch down on a gravel pile: a little bit of dust flying away and a few particles jumping up," Lauretta told Space.com last year. He told The Sun, “For instance, Freddie wasn't white but nobody cared. He was a musician. He was our friend, our brother. We didn't have to stop and think, ‘Oh should we work with him? Is he the right colour or the right sex?’ It's frightening that people have to be so calculated about things. To me it is dangerous.” Through viewers, stereoscopic photographs and interactive elements, explore topics such as celebrity portraits, snapshots of Victorian life, scenes of satire and devilry found in Sir Brian May’s collection. Stereoscopic photographs and other artwork from Watts Gallery Trust’s own collection will feature among the loaned works.

The British Library and Kings College here: https://www.bl.uk/events/stereoscopy-the-dawn-of-3d-brian-may-and-denis-pellerin Presents the entire history of the asteroid from formation over 4.5 billion years ago, right the way through to today’s mission. Brian May will make an appearance at his London Stereoscopic Company shop located in the prestigious PROUD photography gallery, Charing Cross, to do his first book signing since the Covid pandemic. Working on this project, I learned all over again that the photographs we take say a lot more about US than the subject we capture. Viewing the stereoscopic work of others, we find ourselves completely transported to the place and time when their picture was taken. Unlike our previous books,’ he continues, ‘these images came in with every conceivable kind of alignment, framing etc, so it was an enormous job editing each one to get it to the optimum point. The most important consideration was to avoid giving the reader a headache. You need to keep a firm watch on the convergence of the images and now they are aligned to avoid straining the readers’ eyes.

Wheatstone was one of those all-round Victorian inventors and academics, for whom the distinction between art and science didn’t exist. Interesting things were just interesting things. So as well as being Professor of Experimental Philosophy at King’s, which is now the home of his archive, he invented the concertina (and another musical instrument called the symphonium). Those Victorians knew how to multitask. Wheatstone first demonstrated the stereoscope in 1838 after he realised that humans’ perception of depth is mainly due to a thing called stereopsis, when our brain takes the different images from our left and right eyes and combines them into one 3D image. His machine simply replicates this process. May and Pellerin point out that stereoscopy actually predates photography, a term that wasn’t even coined until 1839. “He was a true polymath,” says May. “Wheatstone was a true genius and, yes, should have his place on that pantheon [with Edison and Bell].”

While getting books signed by Brian May, visitors will also have the opportunity to explore the wonders of the exhibition –“Stereoscopy Is Good For You: Life in 3-D”. For the next 5 months, the exhibition will offer visitors the chance to experience 3-D first-hand, using May’s patent OWL viewers, in three areas channeling the new SIGFY book, the Birth of Stereoscopy, and QUEEN in 3-D. I did a design to turn an iPhone into a stereo camera instantly,’ he reveals, ‘but nobody took me up on it. Yes, we now have the crowdfunded Qoocam, which is a nice stereo stills and movie camera, but it would be nice to have something built into phones. It is a dream come true! This publication should set a few things right about the history of the first thirty years of the medium and should put stereoscopy once more in the limelight, where it rightfully belongs.” Join Brian May and Denis Pellerin at the live virtual launch on the evening of 10th November, in association with Since 2012, Denis has also been the curator of Brian’s extensive collection of stereo photographs and has co-authored four book with Brian.

DENIS PELLERIN: “This book has been in my head for so long and has involved so much research that I am thrilled it is being released at last, thanks to the efforts and dedication of Dr. Brian May and all of our team. It is a dream come true ! This publication should set a few things right about the history of the first thirty years of the medium and should put stereoscopy once more in the limelight, where it rightfully belongs.” Brian’s next highly anticipated book – Bennu 3-D: Anatomy of an Asteroid – is coming very soon! To launch the title he and The London Stereoscopy Company are collaborating with one of the UK’s most magnificent institutions, the Natural History Museum…. Brian May and Professor Dante Lauretta Brian also delighted his listeners with a story about how his next-door neighbour introduced him to the Stereoscopic Society, which created opportunities for him to make stereoscopic friends around the world. It’s the same with music. With Queen, we have always tried to play to the people and disregard the political situation. Music is about connecting people, and that’s our job, and it’s the same with photography. That said, none of us wants to put any kind of approval on what Russia is doing as a country right now. It’s an incredibly painful situation.’ A real eye-opener Although May is best-known for playing arenas with the band he formed over 50 years ago, one of his numerous scientific hinterlands away from the stage is stereoscopy. For the uninitiated, it was an early way of looking at photographs via a special viewer that fused together two flat images to create a single 3D picture. Stereoscope machines entranced Victorian society for a short period in the 1850s and 1860s before being usurped by a different craze.