TEMPORARY TRANSMISSION

In this season, the cultural and religious phenomenon of Holy Week takes place; regardless of one’s creed, these dates have their own photographic story and, as it could not be otherwise, their own stereoscopic treatment.

In 2022 we promoted and produced, together with the City Council of Real Sitio de San Ildefonso, the Real Fábrica de Cristales de La Granja, MundoHouse and Klumpcol, an exhibition whose designers were Lourdes López Mendieta and Alberto Villar Bueno. It was curated by Lee Fontanella and Juantxo Egaña. It was called – Semana Santa ‘La Pasión’. A stereoscopic vision – and was inaugurated on 01/04/2022.

Among other monoscopic photographs. The main objective for us was to show the 14 stereoscopic views, life-size 9×18 cm, which were displayed on black panels and reproduced pairs included in the series of 24 cards published by B.K., in which the life of Jesus unfolds (LA VIE DE JÉSUS Par Habert B.K. Edit. Paris).

The B.K. edition reproduced photographically scenes from sculptural groups by the sculptor Louis Alfred Habert (1824-1893). His figures were articulated models with interchangeable elements (heads and limbs among others), so that depending on the situation depicted they had different gestural expressions and body positions.

Attached is the pdf document explaining the exhibition (diagrams that we transferred to La Real Fábrica de Cristales) for a better understanding of those attending. We draw attention to the different faces of Jesus, the postures of the soldiers, disciples and followers. In the document we can find concrete examples of these characteristic changes, as well as an identification of the settings where the action takes place, in very realistic geographical approximations, with respect to what is described in the Bible and the urban remains that are still evident today in the city of Jerusalem.

For the Holy Week Exhibition event, Stations I to XI plus XIII and XIV were chosen. Nº. XII (Death of Jesus) was replaced by a diorama with oil paintings by the artist Juan de la Peña (100×200 cm) and a visual montage by Luis Lancho. Stereoscopy nº. 15 was added as an element independent of the usual Stations of the Cross, because it reflects the message of hope in the Resurrection.

At that time (April 2022), we were showing how an albumen was transformed into a full-colour image, simply when direct light shone on it (the paint and tissue pack performed the “miracle”).

Our interest in that period is renewed today when we see that in the FBS Collection, in the area dedicated to photomechanics, we find the so-called stereoscopic “lithographs” of Whiting Brothers (Richard Ross and William A.), publishers of stereoscopic cards under the firm THE AMERICAN NOVELTY Co. of Cincinnati (Ohio), which also manufactured a specific viewer for these cards, the Sculptoscope (models perfected between 1913 and 1922) which worked with 1-penny coins, and as an attraction in amusement arcades, as well as countertops of some shops.

Richard Ross and William A. Whiting had previous experience as salesmen for Keystone stereoscopic products. In fact, R.R. worked as a photographer for the company. The production of THE AMERICAN NOVELTY Co. brought together original works that generated funds from the company itself, such as the photographs of T. W. Ingersoll. However, we can see that it also drew on funds from other companies, such as the reproductions of Publisher B.K. referred to above.

In fact, among the material belonging to the FBS Collection, the stereoscopies copyrighted by R.R. Whiting and THE AMERICAN NOVELTY Co. are of very varied themes.  But we are going to focus on the 14 stereoscopic four-colour prints, taken from the B.K. series, which motivated the exhibition of “The Passion”. Although the pairs lack identification of authorship, they are reframed and printed copies, whose format had to be adapted for the viewing system of the Sculptoscope, viewer with carousel drive mechanism for views of paper cards, patented by R.R. Whiting.

With the Sculptoscope, a three-dimensional restitution was produced by means of fixed, unadjustable, middle-distance viewing, whereby the approach to the image was conditioned by precise optics so that the eyes could transfer to the brain a scene without the pattern generated in the image, the view of which was limited by the mechanical reproduction system.