Monday, May 25, 2009

The art of View-Master

We took a recent trip to Selma, NC, to visit their antique district. The town itself was a bit of antique, a portrait of what the world used to look like. It was a little unsettling to find it so apparently deserted on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, but I guess if I lived there, I would take every opportunity to leave for more exciting venues.

The antique district itself was impressive - at least, to people like us it was impressive. We went with open minds and an open wallet, expecting - hoping, even - to find something to take home. Sadly, we found nothing except for a booth overflowing with an excellent collection of View-Master reels. I bought quite a few fantastic reels and, when we got home, I pulled out my existing collection and viewer and spent hours flipping through them.

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'll say it now: I love View-Master. I think it is an art form that is nearly totally lost. In the time I've spent writing this post, I have also done some cursory research on making your own reels, and it is still possible, although slightly expensive - $100-$200 for a working vintage camera, $40+ for a set of 6 blank reels (apparently they are no longer in production), $50 for a film cutter, plus the cost of 35mm slide film and the expense of having the film developed. It is intriguing - I am inspired to make the attempt, although I want to make sure that it is a potentially sustainable hobby. For example, if the blank reels are no longer available, I doubt if it is really worth the investment of hundreds of dollars to produce a half dozen reels.

At any rate, as fun and rewarding as that may be, my real joy is discovering old reels. I love the slight discoloration that they have. I love seeing the old cars, the old tourists in their old clothes (ankle-length skirts and suits and ties to see Yosemite!) frozen forever in time. But more than that, they are captured in 3-D. There's something very special about that. It is also amazing to see the clothing that is clearly from an era long-gone posed next to vistas that are practically unchanged.

I am very interested in a d.i.y. View-Master hobby, but it will certainly require some research. There are plenty of methods for creating 3-D images from digital photography as well as film, but making it a View-Master reel is something special.

Please enjoy some additional photos from Selma.

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