Regent Street in Londen c. 1860 - 1880

York & Son made this stereoscopic image of Regent Street in London using photographic chemicals on paperboard. The card presents two almost identical images side by side. When viewed through a special viewer, the brain merges the two images into one, creating a sense of depth. This was a very popular mode of image production in the Victorian era, mass-produced for popular consumption. This little object is a portal onto a very different world. The material of the photograph itself, the way it captures light and shadow, gives us a sense of the city’s atmosphere – the pollution, the fashion, the sheer density of activity. The firms of York and Son captured the urban life of London as a commodity. Stereoscopic images blurred boundaries between art and craft. The photographic chemicals meticulously applied to the paperboard, coupled with the mechanical precision of the camera, allowed for mass production. Consider the labor involved in creating these images: from the photographers capturing the scenes to the factory workers producing the prints. It reveals how technology transformed artistic production and consumption.