CAZENOVIA — This summer, local artist Dave Porter is presenting a collection of 3D anaglyphs of historic photographs in the Earlville Opera House (EOH) Virtual Gallery.
The majority of the 40 images are of Cazenovia.
Porter, who has lived in the village since 1985, collects local historic photographs as a way to connect with his community. He is particularly interested in early stereo pair images, also known as stereographs or stereoviews.
According to Porter’s artist statement, Cazenovia has an especially rich photographic history. Early Central New York photographers began producing affordable images, including stereo pair images, in the late 1800s.
The anaglyphs included in the EOH virtual gallery are based on images from that timeframe.
An anaglyph can be produced from stereo pair images by tinting the right image red and the left image blue, and then overlaying the two images. The resulting image can be viewed in 3D using red/blue glasses. Porter explained that the colored lenses block the opposing image, and the brain interprets the resulting optical input as a three-dimensional image.
“I hope that when people view my anaglyphs [they] make a visceral connection with the past and the people who lived in an earlier time,” Porter wrote in his artist statement. “I want to acknowledge the original photographers from the late 1800s who created the original [images] — some of their work is quite amazing and holds up even today . . .”
The artist said his favorite image in the featured collection is “Woman Shucking Peas, Kamp KT.”
“In some of the views you can see how far apart I moved the two images in order to achieve the 3D effect – sometimes I pushed it to the limit to create a hyper-stereo effect,” Porter noted. “When I assembled the two images for the Woman Shucking Peas, the stereo effect was so striking with only a minor offset between the right and left images. I attribute this to higher quality lenses from whatever stereo camera was used. Unfortunately, the photographer for that image is unknown; [they were] possibly an amateur photographer.”
Porter has been producing anaglyphs since 1997. He has presented several shows of his work for the Cazenovia Public Library (CPL) and the Friends of Lorenzo. His images are also used in Cazenovia Middle School as part of CPL’s local history program.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he has been especially active in preparing anaglyphs of Madison, Onondaga and Chenango Counties.
Porter’s anaglyphs can be viewed at earlvilleoperahouse.com/david-porter/ through July 24.
Red/blue glasses are available for purchase at EOH. Contact [email protected] to reserve a pair.
To learn more about Porter and his work, visit daveporterart.com.
