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Simon MacDonald Bell, co-author of Chariots of Chrome: Classic American Cars of Cuba, is a photographer and multimedia producer, based in Toronto, Canada. He is known around the world for his work in stereography, the art and science of making 3-D images.
His photographs and stereographs are currently on display till the end of February, 2005 at the MZTV Museum of Television, 277 Queen St. West in Toronto.
Chariots of Chrome: Classic American Cars of Cuba, was published in September 2004 by Boston Mills Press. Bell's previous titles, Snakes and Lizards, Insects and Spiders, Birds of Prey, Night Creatures and Wild Cats are natural history books for children that include a 3D viewer.
Through his company, Tantus Communications, Bell produced a stereographic display about dinosaurs for the Royal Ontario Museum. Tantus also created a 3D video for The Communiqué Group that was the highlight of a corporate banquet at Jasper Lodge, Alberta. As well, Tantus produces communication projects in conventional (2D) media: video, print and on the web.
Bell worked with the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid Committee to produce a panel display featuring his stereo photographs of Toronto: its venues, its people, its charm. TIME magazine noted the display at the Olympic Museum in Switzerland saying how a pair of 3D glasses "reveals the city waterfront in all its glory". Since IOC members were restricted from visiting candidate cities, it was a novel way to bring Toronto to the IOC!
On April 23rd, 2001 the Toronto Star Saturday newspaper was an all-3D issue. Simon Bell was quoted on the front page in an article entitled, "There’s more depth in your 3D Star".
Simon Bell's exhibit of his stereographic work, StereoJets: Travels in the Third Dimension was shown at the Alchemy Artist Centre, Toronto, in May and June 2000. It was a popular hit at Toronto’s photo festival, CONTACT 2000. The exhibit was the first of it’s kind in Canada to use StereoJets, a new stereographic print medium. Moses Znaimer, of CityTV, purchased five of Bell’s Stereographs for his personal art collection. Znaimer invited Bell to exhibit his work at the ideaCity2001 conference, a forum for sharing new ideas and talents.
Simon Bell traces his interest in photography back to age six, when his father gave him a hand-me-down "box-brownie" camera. These early beginnings developed into a serious pursuit while studying economics at York University, Toronto and on subsequent travels through Europe and Asia. His first published photo was in National Geographic (Dec.1975) for a story about rafting on the Yukon River.
Bell managed the audio-visual department at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, 1975-1978 and worked as the director of photography for The AV House, in Toronto, 1979-1982.
He started his own A/V production business, Bell Production Services Ltd. (BPS), in 1982. Through the 1980's, BPS won 4 Gold and 4 Silver "Amies" from the Association for Multi-image International (AMI) for their special effects work.
His first stereographic (3D) shoot was on a trip to the Galapagos in 1987 with the Toronto Zoo. The subsequent 3D slide show, Galapagos in Depth was shown at the Ontario Science Centre. Bell has also combined his stereographic knowledge with his computer graphic skills to produce 3D images of galaxies and wormholes for art director Jon Lomberg and the animation team on the movie Contact starring Jodie Foster.
From the smallest blade of grass to the mountains on Mars, Simon Bell has set his stereo sightlines on a world of wonders that thrill viewers young and old. His empathy with his subjects and his skill as an image maker are well illustrated in the Eye-to-Eye series of children’s nature books. His first two books, Snakes and Lizards and Insects and Spiders, published in 1997, sold out their first printing in Canada. The books are also distributed in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and in Germany (in German). The series has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide.
Simon Bell can be reached via e-mail: thirdspace@bellnet.ca
