When I first began making stereograms
in 1996 the Internet was the furthest thing from my mind. Two years
later, I got connected. With low expectations, I typed "stereograms" into
a search engine for the first time and was amazed how much came up.
At that point, my stereograms weren't bad, and I was tempted to put
up my own site.
I was finally able to get a cable connection that came with 10Mb
of server space. I developed some basic Web design skills and
posted the first version of what I called, Color Stereo. To my astonishment,
I got so much traffic it rapidly used up the meager bandwidth allowed
by the ISP. So in 1998 I took the big plunge and took out my own
domain.
Meanwhile, I'd come up with a technique for adding
a volumetric look to the paper cutout appearance common to wallpaper
type stereograms. This prompted me to add a second set of galleries
which I called Second SIRDS, and I called the first galleries: Color
Stereo 1. Later, I added the Third Eye galleries when I began integrating
stereo-photographic elements into my images. Then an anaglyph gallery.
I kept adding additional galleries
until it got too much to manage, so I didn't.
Ultimately, I redid the site. My Web design skills
are far better than when I first began, but still kind of basic.
Basic works out fine because in my wish to reach as many viewers
with as many different platform, connection speeds, monitor sizes,
and screen resolutions as possible basic is better than complicated
multimedia pages. Anyhow, who needs fancy multimedia when stereogram
viewers get innate 3D . . .
Today's Color Stereo is much cleaner and organized.
There are far fewer images, but still plenty,
easier to get to, and higher quality. As a result of unauthorized
use and piracy I now make my signature lines more prominent than
I'd like to on my digital images. The signature lines to not
exist on my published works.
Largely as a result of the Color Stereo site, I
now have a career as a dedicated stereogram creator.
I am mostly published in Japanese markets, but there are also several
books available in the US as well as Europe and Asia. As a result
of keeping up with custom jobs and publications I no longer have
time to update the site as I would wish.
Despite the remarkable amount of visitors from all over the world,
people still usually give blank stares when I mention stereograms.
My mission is twofold: use this site to inform the public about stereograms,
and take stereograms from a visual curiosity into acceptance as a
New Age art form. I'm not saying that many of my stereograms are
art, but that is the direction I wish to head. Last but not least,
I wish to bring some pleasure to my visitors.
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