Queen's Brian May launches 3D book

LONDON: As a founding member of the rock band Queen, Brian May has played guitar on some of the most memorable music tracks of modern times, he's played legendary shows at some of the world's greatest venues. This event, however, is taking place inside a barn in the Oxfordshire village of Hinton Waldrist. Brian May, Co-Author, A Village Lost and Found said, "This isn't one of the biggest gigs I've ever played, but I have to say it's one of the more exciting ones." The reason is that this launch for his new book, 'A Village Lost and Found', marks the realization of a lifelong passion for 3D photography. It began with the discovery of what's called a stereoscopic card inside a box of Weetabix cereal when he was a child. He said, "So you get your little steroscope, you put your card in and suddenly the magic happens. Instead of two flat images you get a single stereoscopic 3D image, which you seem to be able to walk into." May eventually began collecting the cards, which led him to the work of the Victorian 3D pioneer Thomas Richard Williams. The series 'Scenes In Our Village', which May's new book focusses on, was always a particular favourite. "Of course we've advanced technologically so much now. We've learned to cover the planet in concrete. We have communications, et cetera, et cetera, but as a species I think we may have lost some of the values that were current in the 1850s and TR Williams - very ahead of his time - had exactly this in mind. He thought something was being lost in the Industrial Revolution, in mechanisation and the depersonalisation of life. So this series to me has been very relevant to the 21st century." The effect of these double images unfortunately cannot be fully appreciated through a computer or TV screen, but the president of London's Stereoscopic Society Bob Alderidge says Williams' series and May's book provide a unique window on a bypassed era. May said, "Why is it significant today? Because we have a pace of life that is very frantic. If you look at the book you can go back to a calmer way of life and it's therapeutic. But it's also part of a very big 3D wave that's coming - people like James Cameron with his Avatar film, the IMAX 3D movies, the new Fuji camera which has just come out." May insists the Victorian method is still the best way to experience 3D. However, but in order to introduce his favourite images to a new audience, the musician actually turned inventor. "I looked for a stereoscope that could be used in the book, and really there wasn't one and nobody was really willing to play ball with me to make it for me, so I thought we'd make it ourselves," he added. The invention is called The Owl, and he jokingly says he'd like to see one in every home - a play on the Victorian marketing motto: 'A Stereoscope In Every Home'. As Hollywood directors and electronics manufacturers take 3D into new dimensions, this lifelong enthusiast hopes some will be inspired to seek out a more detailed view on the history of the craft.