The Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy have announced the fifth international Stereoscopy Day will take place on June 21st 2026, 188 years to the day when Charles Wheatstone officially presented his theory of binocular vision and stereoscope. With the date falling on a Sunday this year, events to celebrate it will occur on or around the day, and a list of those shared with us so far can be found on the Stereoscopy Day website.
Photo historian and co-curator of the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy, Denis Pellerin, is giving a free online talk on Saturday 20th June 2026, starting at 5pm BST, ‘The Creative and Prolific Partnership of Furne & Tournier’:
‘Join photo historian Denis Pellerin who will show you in 3-D some of the most unusual works of 19th century French Stereo Photographers Charles Furne and Henry Tournier. These two cousins were in a partnership for only four years – between 1857 and 1861 – but produced over 2,000 quality topographical and genre stereoscopic cards. There are some unique aspects in their almost exclusively stereoscopic production: extensive series of photographic trips to Brittany, Provence, the Pyrenees, Switzerland, and other places, as well as staged scenes of a very unusual character which have no parallel in the contemporary commercial stereoscopic studios. Furne and Tournier were very much interested in the literary world of their time and this is reflected in their work. They also tried to capture and reproduce movement some 35 years before the first projection of animated photographs by the Lumière brothers. The amazing production of these two pioneers is still little known and underestimated, mainly because of their choice of the stereoscopic medium. On this year when we celebrate the bicentenary of photography and the fifth edition of Stereoscopy Day it is time to give them the place their deserve in the history of this Art/Science.’
Registration for this online Zoom event is free, and full details can be found on Eventbrite here. Registration closes at 1pm BST on the 19th of June, and a Zoom link will be sent to the participants later that same day.
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