‘A crew of demolition workers in Paris discovered a mysterious wooden box hidden in the ruins of a condemned building. The box, which had been wrapped with old military belts, was found to contain a collection of photographs depicting a hedonistic world filled with drunken devils, sinister skeletons and scantily clad women. An anonymous note found buried among the glass images added:
‘“This is the work of my life, it is thus that I dreamed of Hell. If my visions are true, then the wicked may rest assured, the afterlife will be sweet for them to bear.”
‘What the demolition workers discovered that day was a series of photographs known as Les Diableries, The Diabolical. Each scene in the series was composed of an elaborate diorama sculpted out of plaster and clay and embellished with miniature props. Created in Paris during the 1860s, the series was printed in the form of stereoscopic transparencies.’
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This capsule was curated by Mitch Kaba
You can read the full history of Les Diableries at the curator’s website:
http://cine-graphics.com/les-diableries-3d-visions-of-hell/
Fantastic work. Incredible web concept and design, and veeeeery good and documented stories. We love specially the “victorian” look and feel and the “atmosphere” of travel and adventure floating over all the content.
We will take from your site some of this superbe stuff for our own blog, “Travels with my aunt”.
http://www.viajesconmitia.com/
Bon voyage, mr. retronaut.
If you sit about 24″ from the screen and relax your eyes (like doing the Magic Eye puzzles so popular back in the ’90s), you can see these in stereo. The detail is remarkable.
very impressive. I loved my Grandma’s stereoscope. As it was the photos she had were almost frightening to me, the impression they gave me of immensity. I can’t imagine how freaked out I would have been by these!!! # 7 looks like there are women? maybe? dressed in what looks like women’s clothes anyway, but their heads are birds. wt????
I belive that a few of these are in the museum of cinema in Turin (Italy) !!
I’ve seen these somewhere else. Not the actual slides, but photos of them. Unfortunately, Mr. Pink Skull says “Don’t even enjoy these.”