Shooting photos in three dimensions may sound like more modern technology, but people have been creating the illusion of depth in photos for more than 100 years.
And these photos of Vancouver capture that depth...if you have the right device.
They use the concept of stereoscopy. It's actually essentially the same as the old red-blue glasses and current polarized cinema glasses.
However, to get the 3D experience from these photos you need a special device called a stereoscope. The images are a pair of photos, one shot for each eye.
If you look closely at the images there are slight differences; it's easiest to notice when there are two things near each other, with one close and one far.
For example, in the photo of the man sitting in the foreground and looking at the waterfront, you can compare where his hat is with the roof of the train station. There is also a pair of photos of the street scene out front of a post office. There you can compare the hat of the man on the right with the banner announcing a baseball game in the background.
Those slight differences, when interpreted through a stereoscope, turn into depth.
In a blog post, the City of Vancouver Archives notes that stereoscopic images went through waves of popularity, with lots produced in the early 1900s. Most of the images in this gallery are from that period.
