210 THREE-DIMENSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
No stereographer should neglect the study of pseudoscopic prints
of various objects. The pseudoscopic picture has also demon-
strated unusual potentialities in the pictorial field. Many objects,
a rock strewn seashore, for example exhibit in pseudo a wholly
abstract form, yet through the retention of natural dimensions
and color, such pictures have a quality only equalled by the best
of our modern artists.
A characteristic of the pseudoscopic picture usually ignored is
that, contrary to the stereogram, those parts of the picture which
appear nearest have less parallax than those farther away, which
results in a peculiar emphasis of depth, a gradually increasing
depth distortion which adds to its value rather than detracts.
These pseudoscopic pictures are true stereo in reverse, and
should never be confused with the false stereograms sometimes
called pseudo-stereograms. These false stereograms are pic+ures
with absolutely no stereoscopic relief, but which by some device
or other have been given a vague appearance of roundness or
false solidity. Although often widely heralded as “stereoscopic,”
“three-dimensional,” and the like, such claims are definitely false,
and should be so recognized. They should never be tolerated,
and they owe any measure of acceptance to the fact that the gen-
eral public is wholly ignorant of the realism of the true stereo-
gram. It-seems strange that any pictorial medium which has once
known universal acceptance and which is so widely popular today
should be so wholly forgotten that the greater part of our popu-
lation should never have seen an example. Yet this is true of
stereoscopy. Fifty years ago a home was not complete without
its stereoscope. Today there are hundreds, even thousands of
people who sincerely believe that stereoscopy was an invention
made during the late war.
The term “stereoscopy” is used advisedly, for it is a part of the
new teaching that stereoscopy pertains only to pictorial reproduc-
tion. This, too, seems incredible, yet there are war-time students
of stereography who insist that stereoscopy has no place in normal,
direct vision!
The fact is that in the year 1870 every photographic dealer sold
stereo equipment, and every photographic amateur (of which there
were even then more than fifty thousand in this country) was
familiar with the process even if he did not practice it. It is