Chaos in 3D


2012

3D in-camera multiple exposures on film. For the full effect, view images with red/cyan anaglyph glasses. These images were created during the Spirit Level V workshop with Arno Rafael Minkkinen and Sally Mann.

Each final image is composed of four different exposures layered onto one frame: Two images (the red and cyan) help create the 3D effect, and each of those two images is a double exposure.

The sense of depth doesn't exist in the image itself. It is created when the viewer puts on anaglyph glasses, and their brain combines the two perspectives to create a third dimension that only they can see.

How 3D images work:

A 3D image is made by taking two side-by-side photographs of the same scene, and then finding a way to display the two images so that the viewer only sees the left image through their left eye and the right image through their right eye. The brain stitches the two images together to create three dimensions. This mimics the way our eyes work together in the real world, each seeing a slightly different perspective of the same scene.

There are different methods for creating 3D images. Here I'm using the red/cyan anaglyph method. One image is shifted toward red tones, the other toward cyan, and the two are layered together slightly offset. When viewed with red/cyan glasses, the red lens filters out the red image, and the cyan lens filters out the cyan image, so each eye sees only one image. The brain combines these into a single image with dimension.

3D image with separate cyan and magenta layers that shows a multiple exposure image of a woman touching one hand lightly to her chin, surrounded by leaves. 3D image with separate cyan and magenta layers that shows a multiple exposure image of a woman staring into the camera, with pine needles and grass in the background. 3D image with separate cyan and magenta layers that shows a multiple exposure image of the bottom half of a woman's face inside a hollow tree trunk. 3D image with separate cyan and magenta layers that shows a multiple exposure image of a woman staring into the camera, surrounded by grass. 3D image with separate cyan and magenta layers that shows a multiple exposure image of a woman with eyes closed, surrounded by plants.