The Curious Lentograph

March 5, 2006 9:33 PM

The Curious Lentograph Coming soon to a thrift store near you.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse (18 comments total)

A curiously warm-hearted site. Nothing like a labor of love to end the weekend.

I think my favorite in the collection has to be "Christ at Heart's Door". Poor Jesus just has such a sad, yet stupidly hopeful expression. If only he were drenched with rain...
posted by slatternus at 9:53 PM on March 5, 2006

My grandma had an animated lenticular that depicted Jesus walking on the water or the Crucifixion, depending on what angle you looked at it. Apparently, I'd sit before it and slowly bob from side to side, mesmerized by it.

Thanks for the nostalgia, and a nice link!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:21 PM on March 5, 2006

The generic name for this is Lenticular Photography. Victor Anderson, who created these, was a pioneer inventer in this medium, and his company was called Vari-View.

You see more and more of these nowadays, created using computer processing on a series of still photos combined and printed digitaly, and laminated to a plastic lens.

Victor's method of doing the entire process optically results in a much higher quality image, and is no longer generally practiced.

If you are a fan of this medium, get ahold of Victor's stuff. Its often up on ebay.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:27 PM on March 5, 2006

We had tons of books like that when we were little--mostly fairy tales, and sometimes you'd get one in a crackerjack or cereal box as a prize.

they were so cool : >
posted by amberglow at 10:54 PM on March 5, 2006

Many of the crackerjack and cereal box prizes where also created by Anderson at Vari-View, but these "winkies" used a different process, commercial printing as opposed to a true photographic image. Likewise 3D postcards are usually print not photo based.

The "good stuff" shown in this link should be seen in person, its very impressive.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:05 PM on March 5, 2006

Oops, that's VariVue.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:12 PM on March 5, 2006

We had tons of books like that when we were little--mostly fairy tales

As I was reading the piece, I was thinking "this must have been what was on the cover of The Three Little Kittens." I had at least two others, but I don't remember what they were.
posted by Mayor Curley at 11:18 PM on March 5, 2006

I don't have the money to make lenticular 3D, so am forced to stick to good old fashioned Astro Zombie 3D.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:03 AM on March 6, 2006

I have several of these postcards, plus some not shown in the series which I assume are from the same studio -- they are very kitschy, but optically of excellent quality.

There's one of Christ on the cross, closing his eyes and then opening them to gaze up to heaven. Quite creepy.
posted by Hogshead at 3:15 AM on March 6, 2006

Interesting FPP Bighappyfunhouse, thanks. I wondered what the technical name was for those old kitsch 3-D photographs. Here's a site with 3-D pictures and anaglyphs. They can also make you your own lentographs of different kinds. A few more images here and here.
posted by nickyskye at 4:36 AM on March 6, 2006

I think my favorite in the collection has to be "Christ at Heart's Door".

My great aunt had that exact picture hanging in her living room. This sight brought back lots of great memories of visiting my elderly West TN relatives.
posted by kimdog at 6:50 AM on March 6, 2006

I have one of those post cards. It was sent to me by my friend Matt from the band, "The Fluid" and it has a picture of Jesus hovering over a waterfall. The Jesus looks like Andy Kaufman but its awesome.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:02 AM on March 6, 2006

I saw a bunch of religious lenticular images in Mexico years ago. One of them featured Christ on the Cross, and when you tilted it his eyes closed and blood dripped down his face.
posted by LarryC at 7:35 AM on March 6, 2006

Oh man, I had those books with the 3-D covers as well. They were like borad books, and the illustrations throughout were photos of puppets or dolls. Very creepy, but the lenticular cover was cool...just checked ebay, and yes, they have some of these books, exactly as I remember. Thanks for the memories!
posted by Biblio at 8:38 AM on March 6, 2006

The basic visual concept goes back to 1692, although photographic techniques began in the 1890s: see here (more details and images at A History of Lenticular and Related Autostereoscopic Methods.) In the 1980s, the four-lens Nimslo 35mm 3D camera was mass-marketed specifically to create lenticular prints with special processing.

And if you need a little something to cover that big, blank wall, hang a lenticular billboard.
posted by cenoxo at 9:19 AM on March 6, 2006

OMFG this is so weird. I got Faustus as a hand-me-down from my dad's hippie dentist friend (you know, the one who had the secret stash of Weirdo comix) about 25 years ago. I don't recall anyone telling me the dog's name, but I do recall telling people that the dog's name was Faustus. Plate of shrimp? Anxiety of influence? I don't know, but I'm gonna go find that doggie right now and see if there were any markings on it.
posted by whuppy at 9:28 AM on March 6, 2006

Yup. "Plate 123: Faustus" Clearly marked. Cancel the freakout alert. And thanks for the link, bighappyfunhouse!
posted by whuppy at 9:33 AM on March 6, 2006

Jerry Nims, the nims in nimslo, took over for Jerry Falwell as the head of the conservative group Moral Majority.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:58 PM on March 6, 2006