A Village Lost and Found
An Annotated Tour of the 1850s series of Stereo Photographs "Scenes in our Village" by T.R. Williams

By Brian May and Elena Vidal


A Village Lost and Found
Online price: £35.00
Hardback, 240 pages
Published: 22nd October 2009

Category: Architecture, Art and Design, Travel


This book is the perfect antidote to the stress of life in the 21st Century.

It portrays the idyll of life in an 1850s village, "far from the sound of the train's whistle".



The identity of the village was lost to the world for 150 years, and only by a miracle does this magical set of stereoscopic views survive, brought together for the very first time by Brian May and his co-author, photohistorian Elena Vidal. Their research is amazingly in-depth, but the book is utterly readable, and the pictures leap into glorious 3-D, viewed in the new focussing stereoscope which May has designed and produced, to bring the stereos to life, and then fold neatly into the slip-case of the book.



The book gives an extraordinary insight into everyday village life at the time - with a woman at her spinning wheel, the blacksmith outside his smithy, three men at the grind stone sharpening a tool, the villagers in the fields, bringing in the harvest as well as often taking time to enjoy a good gossip.



In every case the original verse which accompanied the view is reproduced. In addition, May and Vidal have researched and annotated all the views, revealing another layer of meaning, by exploring the history of these real characters, this idyllic village and its links with the present day.



The result is a powerfully atmospheric and touching set of photographs."



A Village Lost and Found brings master pioneering stereographer T. R. Williams's passionate life-work Scenes in Our Village to a new audience - in glorious 3-D, as never before.



For an Electronic Press Kit for A Village Lost and Found click here

Foreword

Thumbnails and Contents

Introduction

Scenes From Our Village - 59 Stereoscopic scenes of 1850s village life

Further notes on the pictures

Biography of T.R. Williams

Camera and techniques used

What is stereo photography

And can I do it?

Acknowledgements

T. R. Williams seems to have created “Our Village” as a labor of love, recording the scenes of his childhood summers and documenting a place and way of life that was already vanishing through the effects of the industrial revolution. His extraordinary dedication to the project and his quest for perfection in stereographic imagery are both honored and mirrored in the years of research, photographic explorations and thoughtful presentation that have made possible this book, 'A Village Lost and Found' - clearly another labor of love. - Stereo World

The effect is amazing. It takes a moment to adjust to the viewer, but once you have got the knack, the villagers and their surroundings seem to leap from the page, bringing scenes such as these to life and helping you appreciate details you might otherwise miss. The book is superbly produced and bound in large format with a separate slip-case for the easy-to-assemble stereo viewer. a bygone age indeed but I can assure you one thing: it will rock you. - Mail on Sunday

A more detailed picture of our forebears rather than a little silhouette of a man! - Amateur Photographer

An illuminating example of 'photo-archaeology'. - Ag - International Journal of Photographic Art & Practice

An enchanting look at rural life and local characters. - Oxfordshire Life

You can see a rural English village in the 1850s just the way it was - or maybe as close as you'lll ever get. A Village Lost & Found really is a bit of a time machine, certainly if you allow your imagination some freedom (and if you take the time to read the book.) - Conscientious - Jörg Colberg's weblog about fine-art photography

The book works on a number of levels. If you have a passion for photography, it will excite you. If you are interested in history, it will intrigue you. If you are keen on technical aspects, then the stereoscope will indulge you. This is definitely a collector's bargain to be treasured on any book shelf. - Silvershotz

Maybe 'A Village Lost and Found' can serve to rekindle the passion for photography in those who like to complain how there's nothing new any longer , or how photography supposedly is 'dead': Well there is still a lot to be discovered. So why not start by looking at something like A Village lost and Found' ? I'll happily admit it was much more fun than I would ever have imagined. - Conscientious - Jörg Colberg's weblog about fine-art photography

The awesome thoroughness of this boook is worthy of a PhD thesis… a triumph of scholarship and credit to all concerned. - Royal Photographic Society Journal

It's like magic and makes me feel like a child again. - Observer

'Somehow, in the first ten years of stereo photography, a handful of Chemist / Artist / Photographers both technically and artistically did it all'.



'One does wonder if this secrecy [over the location of the village] might have been deliberately engineered ... perhaps he intended a dual purpose for the project: privately a trip back into the idyllic world of his own childhood, and publicly, a symbolic celebration of a universally disappearing way of life.'



Publication Details:

Binding: Hardback, 240 pages
ISBN: 9780711230392
Format: 325mm x 240mm
560 photographs in colour and black and white

BIC Code: AJR, WTM
BISAC Code:  TRV009070
Imprint: Frances Lincoln


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