Can a photograph be considered proof?
Is photography a mechanical and objective media? Is it an art?
All these questions have haunted photography since its invention – some are still being asked today. However, the answer has been there all along.
Hippolyte Bayard was one of the inventors of photography and one of the first to fake the “reality” he was photographing.
Since then, many genres and techniques have proved that photographs can be anything we want them to be.
Hippolyte Bayard
Cathedrale di Notre Dame. Credit: Hippolyte Bayard, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
While Niépce gets the credit for the first photograph in history and Daguerre gets the official credit for being photography’s inventor due to patenting the process, many people were working on it, and the timeline can be confusing.
Hippolyte Bayard claimed he had discovered his method earlier than Daguerre in France and Fox-Talbot in England. Who got the first successful results, regardless of when they made it public, is difficult to tell.
In any case, he was one of the inventors, and while he didn’t receive the proper credit for it, he’s undoubtedly famous for his other contributions to photography.
In this article, I’ll focus on two of them – staged/concept photography and combination printing.
The camera never lies… or does it?
Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man. Credit: Hippolyte Bayard, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
As I mentioned earlier, Bayard isn’t recognized as the inventor of photography despite his claims of being the first to fixate a photographic image on paper successfully.
The reason why this happened is because a friend of Daguerre, Francois Arago, persuaded him to wait before going public. As a result, Daguerre beat him to the punch.
Bayard felt so strongly about what happened that he staged a suicide to make a self-portrait. In it, he wrote:
“The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government, which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life….! … He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you’d better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay. “
While posing has always been perfectly normal in a portrait – especially at this stage of history where exposure times were minutes long – this picture is not considered posed but staged.
The difference is that it has an idea behind it and is meant to portray something that isn’t true.
Before this image, photography was labeled as something that could portray facts. Unlike painting or drawing, things in a photograph must exist in front of the camera to be recorded. Hence, a picture was considered proof.
The staged suicide of Bayard opened the door to all sorts of questions – including the very nature of photography. This debate is still going on today.
Staged photography
The Fruit Sellers. Credit: Fox Talbot and Calvert Jones (probably), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, MET museum.
Even if staged photography started soon after photography was invented, staged photography as a self-standing genre wasn’t recognized until the 1980s.
However, since 1976, critics noticed the emergence of the practice, and A.D. Coleman proposed the term “directorial mode.” However, the term “staged photography,” introduced in 1987, is the most used even today.
Here, the photographer is not merely a documentarist – their role is more similar to that of a film or theatre director.
It doesn’t matter if the image looks perfectly realistic or if it’s the scene of a sci-fi story – everything in it is decided and controlled by the photographer.
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Currently, staged photography is considered the practice of picture-making. This opposes picture taking – which suggests that the photographer simply captures a fleeting moment without interfering.
Another term used to describe this type of work is photographic tableaux.
While staged photography is perfectly accepted as an art form today, there have been many controversial cases about its crossover to other genres.
One of the most famous cases of staged photography passing as the perfect moment is 1950’s The Kiss by The Hotel de Ville by Robert Doisneau.
After being sued a couple of times by women arguing they were in the picture, Doisneau admitted the photo was staged.
One of the plaintiffs was, in fact, the woman who had posed with her boyfriend at the time – she still lost the lawsuit where she asked for part of the sales as compensation, though.
The discussion over documentary photography being staged also pops up quite often. In many cases, this has led to revoking prizes or competitions being suspended.
Contemporary artists who practice staged photography
Many photographers plan and stage their images. Some create realistic scenes, while others build imaginary worlds that travel between surreal and sci-fi art. Here are a few famous examples.
- Duane Michaels – He’s one of the pioneers of staged photography. Michaels is most famous for using a cinematic approach, presenting images in a sequence with text underneath.
- Joan Fontcuberta – He is a photographer and researcher author of many books on the subject. He constantly questions the truthfulness of photography. He often presents his images in settings that induce people to believe different things, makes up the authors, and creates a whole narrative around the work.
- Spencer Tunick – He is mainly known for organizing nude human installations for his photographs. He travels the world and often uses renowned locations for it.
- Cindy Sherman – Famous for her self-portraits exploring the topic of identity. In her series Untitled Film Stills, she stages scenes from films that never existed.
- Pierre Molinier – He was a photographer and painter famous for his erotic work. In it, he often posed with female models and mannequins. He dressed as a dominatrix or a succuba. He was part of the Surrealist group.
- Gregory Crewdson – He stages suburban scenes with an eerie and surreal atmosphere. He works with a large crew that resembles a cinematic production.
- Jeff Wall – His images look like scenes of everyday life. However, they’re carefully planned and executed. He’s famous for his large-format backlit photos.
- Sandy Skoglund – She is a photographer who dedicates months to each installation filled with colorful objects to photograph. Her works are part of multiple modern and contemporary art museum collections.
Combination Printing and its Multiple Possibilities
Another contribution of Hippolyte Bayard was the darkroom process known as combination printing. This is a technique in which the photographer uses two or more negatives to create a single print.
Bayard was the first to think of this process as a way to keep the subject and a cloudy sky exposed correctly in the same print. Nowadays, we use the same principle to create HDR photography.
Combination printing was the origin of photomontage. Again, this proves that cameras don’t necessarily represent life without the photographer’s mediation.
Some considered this as cameras being able to lie – well, photographers, really. This is why the process wasn’t well received by everyone.
I’m sure that you’re familiar with this controversy as well. To this day, I often read comments in photography forums or Facebook groups where people consider it cheating to edit a digital photograph – let alone compositing or using generative AI.
Back in the day, even Queen Victoria got involved in the debate. It’s said that she was favourable to the technique.
Soon after its invention, combination printing wasn’t just used as a way to solve a technical matter, but also as a creative tool.
Two Ways of Life. Credit: Oscar Gustave Rejlander, Public-domain, via Wikimedia Commons
One of the most famous examples of the early stages of this technique was Two Ways of Life. This image was created by Oscar Rejlander in 1857 using 32 negatives.
Fading Away. Credit: Henry Peach Robinson, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Henry Peach Robinson was another noteworthy photographer who used combination printing. His most famous image known today is Fading Away.
He carefully planned and sketched the image that depicted a girl on her deathbed surrounded by her grieving family. To create it, he used five negatives.
Clementina Hawarden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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Lady Clementina Hawarden is one of the female exponents of this technique during the Victorian Era. She’s most famous for using combination printing to create ethereal portraits and domestic scenes.
Photomontage
El_Lissitzky The Constructor self-portrait, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Many, from Dadaists to current digital artists, use photomontage as their preferred media.
Combination printing was a well-established technique towards the end of the 19th century. William Notan became one of the first photographers in North America to use this process as a business model.
Since tourists wouldn’t travel with cameras as they do today, he would take their portraits in the studio and compose a scene where they would be placed in front of a Canadian scenery of their choice.
However, photomontage as we understand it today didn’t come to be until the 20th century. The artists that are credited with the invention are John Heartfield and George Grosz.
Grosz wrote that they came up with photomontage precisely at five o’clock on a May morning and claimed that they had no idea of the possibilities this medium would have.
They were both members of the German Dadaists. The group widely embraced the technique, and thanks to them, it became a popular art form.
Unlike combination printing, the images used for a collage don’t have to be conceived to be used together and form a realistic effect.
Instead, artists would cut different prints, negatives, magazines, etc., to compose their photomontage. The artwork may remain this way, or it could be photographed to create a single print.
However, photomontage artists often mix different techniques to achieve desired results. So, it isn’t easy to pinpoint a definition.
Throughout history, photomontage has mainly been used with political intentions. Since its origin during WWI, it was used as propaganda for the Soviet Government, later as a critique against consumer culture in America, and in satirical postwar postcards.
As digital photography developed and editing software improved, the possibilities became endless. Photoshop is one of the most famous programs used by composite artists.
At some point, Photoshop even became a verb to describe an image that manipulated the “reality” captured by a photographic camera.
The rapid improvement and increased use of generative AI have revolutionized the way photo composites and collages are made today.
Contemporary artists who are famous for their photomontages
Many artists have turned to photomontage – digital and otherwise – to express their ideas and stories.
Some do so intending to raise the ethical awareness of the media, others to help us think about our reality, and others to create their own worlds.
Here’s a list of famous photomontage and photo composite artists to give you an idea of the possibilities of this technique and how it’s been used throughout its history.
- Hannah Hoch – She used found imagery to create her innovative photomontages. For a while, she was part of the Berlin Dadaists. Her work challenged gender roles, current politics, and societal norms.
- Dora Maar – She was a prominent photographer who worked for commercial campaigns and fashion magazines. However, her strongest contribution was her work in surrealism, using collages and composites as a means of expression.
- Aleksandr Rodchenko – His photomontage work is mainly used in posters and books. He was an avant-garde artist who used multiple techniques throughout his career.
- John Heartfield – He was a pioneer of photomontage. One of his most famous pieces is Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Rubbish. This and most of his other montages are charged with political critique.
- Vanessa Rivera – She is a fantasy digital artist who gets inspiration from childhood imagery. One of her images was used in the opening credits of Adobe Photoshop in 2019.
- Simen Johan – He uses digital manipulation and darkroom techniques to produce his surreal images. He also creates sculptures to be used in his photographs. He’s won multiple awards and fellowships, and his work has been shown or belongs to the collections of multiple museums.
- Erik Johansson – He is a renowned digital artist who creates realistic images that may include “elements that seem impossible.” He makes personal fine-art projects and commissioned work for commercial campaigns.
What do you think about staged photography and photomontage? Do you use any of these techniques yourself? Join the discussion in the comments below.
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