About this project

This project is to create three-dimensional View-Master reels of three different abandoned or ruined buildings. Each package will include one reel of stereo photos and a booklet describing the significant history of each site and context of the photographs.

The reels will be similar to the three View-Master reels I published last year about unique places in Chicago.

Unlike the typical View-Master reels of the past, which featured National Parks and mainstream tourist attractions, these photo tours spotlight some non-touristy locations which have a story to tell. Three-dimensional photography is a great way for armchair travelers to feel immersed in an environment and to explore unfamiliar spaces using their imagination. What sorts of secrets do the hidden rooms in these abandoned and neglected spaces hold? Several of the ruined buildings in the new reels have been demolished soon after the photographs were taken, so that the View-Master reels will become souvenirs of an imagined visit to a place which is no longer accessible.

Like these neglected industrial buildings, the View-Master itself represents a dated technology, an older way of looking at the world which is often overlooked in favor of newer gadgetry. Fortunately it is still possible to produce custom reels at an image lab in Seattle, using an original machine dating from the 1940s.

I have already shot the majority of photographs for the project. The next steps will include processing the left & right images for the View-Master slides, and completing the text for the booklets and packaging design before all is ready to be printed.

Total production cost of producing the minimum 1000 View-Master reels of each of three buildings will be roughly $5,700. Printing costs for the package envelopes and the booklets will be roughly $2,600. I am investing $2,000 of savings in the project, so that I will need a balance of $6,300 to finish the project. Can you contribute?