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those of Bob Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, the magazines like OZ and the International Times and the album sleeves and posters of Peter Max, Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin.
These publications were anarchically unofficial, subversive, alternative. And so it is with the Di- ableries, which were published in France from around 1860-1900. The London Stereoscopic Com- pany describes them: “ The cards, called ‘Diableries’ (which translates roughly as ‘Devilments’) de- pict a whole imaginary underworld, populated by devils, satyrs and skeletons which are very much alive and, for the most part, having fun. The cards are works of art in themselves, and are known as FRENCH TISSUES, constructed in a special way to enable them to be viewed (in a stereoscope) illuminated from the front, for a normal ‘day’ appearance in monochrome, or illuminated from the back, transforming the view into a ‘night’ scene, in which hidden colours magically appear, and the eyes of the skeletons leap out in red, in a most macabre way!” Many authors have commented upon the lasting appeal of the occult, and the success of Les Diableries seem to confirm that this was certainly true in Paris in the latter half of the 29th century. For more on the Occult and its last- ing impact, see Kurt Seligman: Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion (1971), and Rollo Ahmed: The Black Art (1936), Colin Wilson: The Occult (1984). Brian May published a book of them with a ste- reo-viewer Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell (2013); and see his book A Village Lost and Found: Scenes in Our Village by T. R. Williams for his research and re-photography of Williams’ ste-
reo photographs of his village
https://www.diableries.co.uk/
These Diableries were photographs of miniature sculptures made Habert, Hennetier and Cougny - and possibly others, as stereo pairs. These images, sold as stereoscopic pairs (centre and right), and published first by Francois Benjamin Lamiche, were enormously popular during this period - over 70 scenes were published by Lamiche, and they spawned many inferior copies. Like Mayall’s Royal Cartes, Sarony’s celebrity cartes, and the cigarette cards of the 1880s, the Diableries were an early example of the collectible image. Produced by making a stereo monochrome image on glass, hand-colouring the reverse side, backing with transparent tissue then mounting in stereo cards.
Jacques Henri Lartigue: Hidden Depths 2004
In 2004 this publication featured a plastic stereo viewer plus a plastic box of some 50-60 printed monochrome stereo images from Lartigue’s early work. Now, if you haven’t access to a stereo view-
er, buy or borrow one to experience the real 3d quality of these images.
https://www.lartigue.org/en/jacques-henri-lartigue/books-and-films/2/