Photo Representation: Reality And Artifice
In the 1850s, photography was still fairly new and its potential barely scratched the surface. Photographers began to experiment with their photos by using different layers of negatives or slightly altering it, combining reality and artifice into one. This method can be seen through Julia Margaret Cameron photography and Oscar Rejlander’s photography. The historical and theoretical relationship between Julia Margaret Cameron's artwork Madonna and Two Children and Oscar Rejlander’s artwork Two Ways of Life are similar through their technique of manipulated images. Julia Margaret Cameron's artwork Madonna and Two Children was an albumen silver print from a glass negative. The subjects in Cameron’s photo were her maid, Mary Hillier, and her two children. To capture her photo, she uses natural light from her windows n her glasshouse studio and dresses the young maid in clothing that makes her look older; however, there was a halo-like circle above the maid’s head, making her look like a representation of the Virgin Mary, an earthbound Madonna. With the light focusing on the maid’s face, the shawl covering her head, her gaze looking directly at the lens, and the halo-like circle above her head, she appears truly divine. Cameron selects her subjects by their beauty, and she chose Mary Hillier to portray the “pure” and “perfect” Madonna.
In Cameron’s autobiography Annals of My Glass House, she states, “Another little maid of my own form early girlhood has been one of the most beautiful and constant of my models, and in every manner of form has her face been reproduced, yet never has it been felt that the grace of the fashion of it has perished… is as pure and perfect in outline as were my Madonna Studies ten years ago”. Though this photo, she combines her love of beauty and love of God. But more than to convey the religious aspects, she wanted to make beautiful photographs. The way Cameron photographed was unique during the time. She would do portraits of people, mostly people she knew like her family, but then puts an allegorical twist that did not happen during that time. She would make them pose and have the background based on biblical themes. John Hannavy states in Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, “Young Freddy Gould, who was posed as several Biblical characters, including Christ, was the son of a fisherman”.
Later in her career, Cameron decided to make a series of illustration of Biblical stories that became the peak of her work. Her different style of visualizing poetry set her apart from other photographers because of her ability to convey intense emotions to the viewer. “… today, when public knowledge of such stories and symbols, and of classical literature, is minimal, her pictures still have a powerful directness and emotional impact”.
Julia Margaret Cameron’s style of photography set a new bar for other photographers, use photography as an art form, a way to speak to the public through photography. Oscar Gustave Rejlander’s artwork Two Ways of Life was created with more than 30 combinations of negatives, photographing each model and background section separately, and based on the background and arrangement of Raphael’s School of Athens. This manipulated photo is an allegorical work depicting two different young men: one on the path of temptations of sensual abandon: vice and the other a virtuous life: virtue. The rebellious youth eagerly heads to the left where there is lust, gambling, and sloth. The wiser youth head to the right where there is marriage, religion, and good works. John Hannavy states in Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, “assembled from other thirty separate plates. The final print evokes after Rafael’s School of Athens, but Reklander’s allegory had an expressly Victorian flavor, with one side representing virtuous activities like reading and tending to the sick, while the other side depicts several deadly sins”. This artwork touches on these delicate themes in religion and shines light into society. It shows everyone, especially the young, will ultimately have to decide what two paths they will follow: either a life of virtue, or a life of vice. Two Ways of Life was one of the most controversial photographs during that time. John Hannavy states, “The inclusion of languorous, bare-breasted nudes provoked a fair amount of controversy when it was first shown”. Despite the photo capturing an unrealistic scene, such nudity shown crossed the line of decency for to be represented photographically. The public could not differentiate between aesthetics or authenticity, “making” a photo vs. “taking” a photo. In a sense, although the photo is unrealistic, it has an underlying truth. As Malcolm Daniel states in Shadowy Organization: Combination Photography, Illusion, and Conspiracy, “’… the supposed impropriety of Rejlander’s image lay in the implied truthfulness of the image in toto — the fear that Rejlander had staged exactly a scene in order to photograph it… The moral criticism of the photograph was largely criticism of the presumed theatrical event’”.
Rejlander’s use of photography to present a serious morale subject was unusual and innovative during his time. Julia Margaret Cameron and Oscar Gustave Rejlander both manipulated their image to convey a poetical and religious view of art and used photography more than a thing to document history, but as a form of art. Mia Fineman states in her book Picture Perfect, “Altering the photographic negative or print was a means of bridging the distance between reality and desire between the picture one could take and the picture one wanted to make”.
Madonna and Two Children and Two Ways of Life combined both reality and artifice into one artwork, blurring the lines between real and unreal. Despite being created about 10 years apart, the theoretical relationship between the two works are similar because they both manipulated their photos to capture something unrealistic with underlying meaning. Oscar Gustav Rejlander showed the public a new, unusual technique (technique of composite printing) for photography. John Hannavy states in Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, “Rejlander grasped in prescient ways the potential of photographic medium to capture an unfolding scene or even stop action long before such images were technically possible. In many of his genre studies he conveys a sense of spontaneity in a scene”. Through his artwork Two Ways of Life, which was created in 1857, Rejlander could convey a story. In Madonna and Two Children, which was created 1864, Julia Margaret Cameron manipulated her photo except used a wire to create a halo like circle than to alter the photographic negative. She created this photography to capture the beauty and illustrate a biblical scene. Both artworks incorporate a religious theme, causing an emotional, controversial reaction from the public. The artworks were also not taken to historically document an event nor was it taken by someone’s request. Hannavy talks bout Cameron stating, “… she came interested in photography… she instantly began to take a series of compelling portraits (many of them, especially those of intellectual and artistic men of the day, in extreme close-up), illustrations of Biblical scenes, and of literature”.
Each artwork was the product of what the photographer wanted to make, not what the public wanted. Cameron did not consider herself as a photographer because she didn’t want to photograph for money. She only photographed things she wanted to photograph. Rejlander began to get tired of the idea that “photography was for the public” because he felt that there was no gain or honor from it. Photography is used to capture moments, a way to connect with the past. People treat photos like evidence and evidence should never be tampered with. In the 1850s, photography was still fairly new. They were mostly used as recorded proof to show that an event had happened or used to take a portrait photo of a family or a family member; however, two photographers pushed the boundaries of photography, and found new ways to portray their artwork. Historically, Julia Margaret Cameron and Oscar Gustave Rejlander were both photographers who opened new doors for photography. Oscar Gustave Rejlander left the public shocked with his artwork Two Ways of Life. Jordan Bear states in his book Shadowy Organization: Combination Photography, Illusion, and Conspiracy, “… assembling portions from distinct photographic sources into one single coherent tableau, elicited a contentious discourse about the camera’s truth-telling capacities and this seemingly hostile hybrid reality”. He pushed the limits of photography, letting others to see the potential of photography. His technique of photography was innovative broadened the different ways photography can be used. Julia Margaret Cameron did not follow the “rules” like every other photographer. Hannavey states, “Her visualizations of poetry are different in style and achievement from those of any other photographer of the time”.
Both Rejlander and Cameron slowly changed the definition of photography over time. Although it was controversial and odd during that time, the public came to understand the beauty of photography.
