Queen guitarist Brian May is to help celebrate the work of a Victorian royal photographer.

George Washington Wilson, from Aberdeen, spearheaded a form of 3D imagery which captured the imagination of the musician a century later.

The 70-year-old has contributed to a new book by expert Professor Roger Taylor about Wilson and will attend a launch event at University of Aberdeen.

May said: “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 3D images proved immensely successful and established Wilson’s national reputation as a pre-eminent photographer.”

Wilson first rose to fame after he documented the construction of Balmoral Castle and became photographer to Queen Victoria.

May was first inspired by stereoscopic photography when cards featuring 3D images were given away free with breakfast cereal in the 1950s.

It led to a lifelong passion for collecting stereo cards and the emergence of his London Stereoscopic Company – dedicated to restoring and republishing Victorian classic cards – as well as original stereoscopic works on other subjects.

The University of Aberdeen holds around 38,000 of the estimated 40,000 glass plate images Wilson captured around the world during his career.

The event takes place on August 16.