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The Collection

3 D views of the collection items from the Jules Richard Museum were created as part of the master photographer examination.
Karen Bartsch's masterpiece from Berlin was created in 2021 and was supplemented by further recordings in 2022.
The content of the masterpiece was about the various „waves“ of popularity of 3 D photos that ran through all ages of photography and are represented by their respective technical photographic cameras and viewing devices. The museum has excellently documented these eras through the numerous exhibits, the various ideas and concepts for implementing 3 D shots are documented in the photos, although not everything is presented here. One focus is of course on the brilliant French camera manufacturer Jules Richard, the museum's namesake.
In the following, the 3 D photos are to be considered as side-by-side.

The first 3 D photographs were daguerreotypes (from 1849).

Tripods were essential because of the long exposure times at the beginning of photography, they were always made of wood and easy to fold, yet very stable.

When lenses could be ground identically, cameras for stereo recordings were equipped with two identical lenses. These cameras could also be set up on tables or bases.

The land cameras and stereo boxes document the first 50 years of stereo photography and could also be used mounted on tripods in nature or in the urban landscape.

Voluminous camera structures mounted on mobile base frames were also used within photo studios.
The following studio camera shows you a great rarity, allowing all photo formats common around 1880 to be photographed in a back. A photo plate for full format could be inserted behind the largest flap, the half format in the next smaller flap, then the quarter format and the eighth format in the inner flap.

For non-moving subjects, stereo recordings can also be made by moving a normal camera sideways with a lens.
The French designer Jules Richard was the first to design handy stereo cameras around 1889 that allowed recordings in sizes 4.5 x 10.7 cm and also 6 x 9 cm. He later created other types of cameras with an image format of 7 x 9 cm. All types were first produced as handmade models in brass and later released in large numbers as machine-made camera series and sold in large numbers. He also designed extensive accessories for his camera developments such as. B. very well thought-out leather camera bags with extra compartments for removable magazines. He developed close-up attachments, sun visors and also wire releases and self-timer with various time settings. The first cameras could only be equipped with individual plateslater there were also removable plate magazines for all plate sizes and, after the introduction of roll film material at the beginning of the 20th century, also magazines for roll films.
Jules Richard's product ranges extended beyond photographic material to viewing devices for individual stereopositives to viewing machines in different types of construction, and later to projection devices.

Following his business interests, Jules Richard first developed and sold copy frames, and later also copy machines, which created positive glass plates from the negative plates that are necessary for viewing. He also developed an enlarger for stereo image halves, which he had printed as monographs as postcards and which were often sent by post.

The positive contact copies of stereo recordings created by Jules Richard were offered and sold in large numbers for his viewing machines. For the viewing machines there were even wooden transport boxes in the lower part for the machine, with separate storage of the magazines with the stereo plates above them.

Back then, stereo images were often viewed in a friendly atmosphere, especially from trips like the one in this stereo photo in a Wilhelminian style living room with the light of a kerosene lamp.

Times and fashions later changed to Art Nouveau, and here too this sociable tradition could be continued with new equipment, now with electric lighting in the rooms and with electrified aids from Jules Richard.

Over the years, the design of the lenses also changed. The first lenses did not have aperture stops for decades. Metal plates with drilled holes had to be inserted in pairs in both optics into a slot behind the lenses, depending on the lighting conditions. Later, a rotating disk was mounted in both lenses, each containing 4 to five aperture values and which could be rotated in front of the optics depending on the lighting conditions. It was only at the end of the 19th century that slat closures were developed, which made it possible to immediately set any aperture value. In order to avoid errors in setting as much as possible, the setting of both aperture values was usually coupled.

After the First World War, Jules Richard created the „Verascope F40“. For this purpose, not only the camera had to be developed and designed as a small-screen camera, but also the necessary accessories, such as a cutting machine to separate the film material into individual photos, the frames for the stereo slides and a slide projector that could throw the stereo images onto the screen in large format. In addition, glasses had to be developed for the viewer, which only made some of the images visible to the viewer for the left eye and also for the right.

The stereo camera also became increasingly popular on hikes, trips and sports, first as a record model and later with film magazines.

Because photography was initially only possible using the black/white technique, many photographers who had previously often worked as painters began to color their photos. This was done either with retouching colors on the front of the photo or on translucent background paper with opaque colors. However, the photo paper also had to be very thin and transparent, which made stereo images very vulnerable and often destroyed. Lighting effects were achieved by the photo often suggesting light signals with pinpricks in the photo paper.

From the very beginning, all types of nude photographers were an immediately popular subject, ensuring a very profitable business model. The problem here was that the photographer was not allowed to name himself because these photos were banned by the censors. Nevertheless, they were very popular in all the well-off chalk in society. There was everything: artistically designed and aesthetic nude motifs through to rough and often pornographic recordings.

Due to Jules Richard's extensive involvement with nude photography, the museum's collection also includes a large number of both stereo acts and monoacts. The museum also has an extensive and international collection of nude books of all styles and eras. The following photo shows the museum founder Peter Maria Stajkoski looking through some specialist books from nude photography.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a new way of displaying stereo images was developed, the so-called anaglyphs. The museum also contains many examples of this in wall panels and, in large projections, three anaglyphs as room dividers with the historical images of three rooms from the former Berlin Palace.

Another idea for a cheaper viewing option arose in Germany in the twenties of the last century.  In addition to his stereoscopes, Willi Winter from Leipzig released the Stereopan in 1907. It was a kind of stereoscope replacement and consisted of an image holder with a concave mirror in which the inserted image was greatly enlarged. According to the description, „Winters Stereopane“ were a replacement for stereoscopes and enabled plastic vision of any images, photographs and postcards. A little later, this company also designed and built the PANTOSKOP, which could also be used to view all kinds of images enlarged using a large converging lens. Later, a PANTOSCOPE with a STEREOSCOPE was also manufactured, which also made it possible to view real stereo images.

In the fifties of the 20th century there was a new development for small screen cameras and generated large sales figures Development of a stereo beam splitter. Almost all large camera movements brought these attachments onto the market for their small image cameras and corresponding viewers. Two fields measuring 24 x 18 mm were created on the small image film measuring 24 x 36 mm, which also gave a good stereoscopic impression and could be easily projected. All you needed to look at them were pole glasses.  However, all pairs of images had to use the portrait format.

Regardless of the political systems, stereo photography was further developed worldwide both with the help of the beam splitter and as a medium format camera like the Russian camera called Sputnik, which was manufactured and sold in huge numbers because it was very inexpensive.

In addition to the real stereo cameras, coupled and individually assembled mono cameras were also used as stereo cameras. These camera ranges even had the advantage that the stereo base could be expanded. This was able to enable an improved and expanded area of application in stereo landscape photography.

Many developments in stereo photography occurred simultaneously, such as. B. usability as a stereo camera for double image capture and after moving optics or after replacing the double lens plate with a single lens as a panoramic camera.

The following photos provide an insight into the Jules Richard Museum, sometimes without or with visitors when looking at the photos or when looking at a stereo demonstration.

The last analog stereo wave gave the „Viewmaster“ enormous popularity and distribution. A German organ builder is said to have had the actual invention of mounting seven pairs of images diagonally on one screen. This system was issued by many Eastern Bloc countries under their own names. These systems are displayed in 2 showcases for comparative viewing. 

Finally, we have the fun of presenting the founder of this museum to you in an endless mirror version.