A STEREOSCOPIC MASTERPIECE EXPLORING THE LIFE AND WORK OF LEADING VICTORIAN PHOTOGRAPHER, GEORGE WASHINGTON WILSON
“It’s my great pleasure to introduce to you all this beautiful book, at the request of its author, my great friend Professor Roger Taylor. It’s been many years in the making, and I’m confident it will have been worth every minute. It presents the life and work of celebrated Scottish landscape photographer George Washington Wilson, who with great skill and flair, photographed the unique beauties of the Scottish countryside in the 1860s with his stereoscopic camera. The resulting 3-D images proved immensely successful and established Wilson’s national reputation as a pre-eminent photographer. Now, courtesy of the Lite OWL included with every book, Wilson’s images can be experienced in exactly the same way they were enjoyed by the Victorian public.”
Brian May

When photography was first introduced to Britain in the early 19th century, Scotland adopted the process with great interest and enthusiasm. A leading practitioner was George Washington Wilson whose innovations in stereoscopic photography created some of the most captivating 3-D photographs of the period and established his reputation, both nationally and internationally. He began his career as a portrait miniature painter, but in the early 1850s he took up photography and established a portrait studio in his home town of Aberdeen. One of his earliest commissions was to photograph the construction of the new Balmoral Castle, and the success of these studies led to other assignments, including portrait sessions of Queen Victoria and members of the Royal Family. He was subsequently appointed Photographer to the Queen.

By the 1860’s Wilson had established his national reputation through a series of technical and aesthetic innovations that significantly advanced the art of stereoscopy and topographic photography. As a result, his business as a photographer, publisher and retailer of images for the tourist market rapidly expanded, and within a few years he dominated the field. George Washington Wilson, Artist and Photographer, for the very first time, allows readers to view Wilson’s work in its original three-dimensional format.

Prof Roger Taylor, the world authority on Wilson, traces his career, captures the essence of the man and presents a glorious gallery of his work in colour (from striking landscape imagery to portraits of royals) with over eighty 3-D stereo cards which can be viewed with the complimentary viewer (Lite OWL, designed by Brian May, included with the book).
Brian May is one of the world’s foremost collectors of 3-D photography, and his archive includes many works by George Washington Wilson and in this collaboration with Roger Taylor, he shares images from the collection.