Visitors at the ongoing What Eyes Love exhibition, featureing 3D photos. Jiang Dong / China Daily

An exhibition of 3D photographs that promises to be memorable

Before entering the photo exhibition at the Orange in Sanlitun, you will be given a special pair of eyeglasses. Seeing the giant photo, you will feel like you are standing in front of something real.

The undergoing What Eyes Love exhibition features more than 30 3D photos, taken by Slovenian photographer Matjaz Tancic, China's Fan Xin and Paul Tsang. Held by the international eyewear retailer LensCrafters, it is the first of its kind in China.

Watching the giant photo of model Liu Wen riding a horse, the visitor will see the horse is moving, Liu's dress is flowing, and the flowers around her are blossoming.

Another photo is taken in a Beijing hutong. Visitors will feel like they are taking a walk in a real hutong instead of just gazing at a painting in the exhibition venue.

Frederic Seiller, CEO of LensCrafters' mother company Luxottica Retail Greater China, loves the portrait of Dong Jie the most. Her face is so vivid in the photo, as if she is ready to talk to the audience.

Tancic is the world's leading 3D photographer, while Fan and Tsang are beginners. Fan is using several cameras to catch the different angles of a picture at the same time, while Tsang is adopting some new techniques. He is trying to work on the depths of a picture instead of creating a 3D image with blue and red lenses.

"We want to use three different ways to show the 3D photographic effects in the exhibition. It will indicate that we are breaking the tradition a little bit," Seiller says.

"3D photography is comparatively new in China. Though the exhibition has captured people's attention, it does not relate to enough business at the moment," China's promising photographer Fan says.

"It is the first 3D photography exhibition in China as 3D has just arrived in the country. Looking at the works on display and the fast development of everything, I am sure we will soon witness a boom in 3D photography here," Tancic says.

But it is not the first time that China's photographers are involved in 3D techniques. Last year, Bazaar Men's Style published China's first 3D fashion photos in its May issue, which gave the readers a special feel. In June, Harper's Bazaar also launched a series of photos, featuring models in bikinis by the swimming pool.

Seeing the trend, Luxottica is working on some products for users to enjoy a 3D photo or movie. The eyewear label Oakley has already launched some products, which are available in China.

"There are other 3D TVs and technologies, so the company is creating more eyewear for this use," Seiller says.

The industry inquires advanced technologies. To watch a 3D photo, a person needs a pair of red and blue glasses, but if one needs to watch 3D TV screens, it is another more complicated technology.

China Daily