I am seeking your help to publish a unique and beautiful 3D stereoscopic book of my photographic project 'Animal Kingdom' to coincide with a series of public solo exhibitions beginning at the Horniman Museum in South London and Klompching Gallery in New York in October. Without your support, the book will not exist so any pledges you can make will be very gratefully received. All supporters will get their names printed in the book, and a VERY big thank you for bringing this book to life.
The book will be made up of five different specimen sections : Marine, Reptile, Avian, Primate and Mammal, with 50 images in total. A superb forward has already been written by Martin Barnes ( Senior Curator of Photography at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London ) that describes the work beautifully. ( You can read this on my website ) There is an excellent essay on the specimens themselves and their history by Ray Barnet ( Head of Collections at Bristol Museum ) and a wonderful and informative essay on the history of stereoscopy by Denis Pellerin ( from the London Stereoscopic Company ). Hoop Design will be publishing the book. They have created books for Tate publishing, The Barbican and National Gallery, to name a few, so the design, editorial and production standard will be of the highest quality.
The book will have an inbuilt stereoscopic viewer with lenses in the cover that will allow the images in the book to be seen in 3D. When you look through the viewer the images come to life and 'float' in front of you. The effect is quite spellbinding. Stereoscopy was invented in 1839 by Charles Wheatstone, to study and explain binocular vision. Having two eyes allows us to determine distance and depth, and stereoscopy demonstrates this by showing a left and right eye view from a slightly different angle, as we see things in day to day life. Look through the stereo viewer and you will see the specimen as a three-dimensional object, a beautiful illusion held in the mind.
I chose to photograph natural history specimens from museum store rooms across the UK because of a lifelong fascination with natural history and a great love of animals and the animal kingdom. Most of these specimens are not available for the public to see. I'm hoping to therefore display and re animate historical specimens that have been studied by generations of zoologists from Darwin to the present day, and in doing so demonstrate an all-encompassing obsession with the magic of stereoscopy. I photographed the specimens in Oxford Museum of Natural History, The Grant Museum, The Horniman Museum, Bristol Museum, The Powell Cotton Collection and the Cole Museum, all in the UK.
Thank you very much for reading, please spread the word !
Jim
