The Ostrich. (Struthio Camelus.) (Full Front)

The public's appetite for stereoscopic photographs seemed insatiable during the mid-nineteenth century. Two nearly identical prints made with a double-lens camera and pasted on a card created a three-dimensional image when viewed through a stereoscope. Among the many thematic categories issued in commercial catalogues, animal imagery was especially popular. Frank Haes made a reputation for himself by photographing exotic beasts at the London Zoo. The steel bars and makeshift fencing that separate these creatures from the viewer reinforce the animals' treatment as spectacle and entertainment.