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Three
simple techniques account
for the majority of manipulated photographs ever
made. Composite photographs,
also called photomontages (
below, left) combine images from multiple
sources into a single picture. Multiple
exposures (below, center)
generally are produced on a single negative by a
single camera. Photocollages
(below, right) combine pieces physically cut
out of various photographs into a single new
picture, sometimes with details changed or added
by an artist.
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Unidentified
photographer (U.S.): Bust
portrait of a man in clouds.
Albumen cabinet card,
circa 1870.
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Abel
J. Whalen (active Michigan,
1862-1897): A One-Man Trio.
Albumen print cabinet card,
circa 1895
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Unidentified
artist: The Giant Baby.
Photocollage on a carte de
visite portrait by Bassano of
London, circa
1865
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Composites
(Photomontages)
Beginning
in England with the works of Oscar
G. Rejlander and Henry Peach
Robinson, composites were used to
make ambitious large-scale
exhibition photographs as early as
the 1850s. The techniques used were
soon employed around the world. Here
are two examples reconstructing the
methods used for making
photomontages.
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The
photographer begins by making a print
of the fan, covering the central area
to leave it blank.
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Before
the photograph is fixed, the portrait
negative is put in place and the print
is exposed again.
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Blissenbach
Studio (Mankato, Minnesota):
Composite, Woman and Feathered Fan.
Cabinet Card circa 1895.
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How
to Visit Niagara Falls Without Leaving
Home
With
the advent of dry plates in the
1880s, it became possible to capture
water scenes with dramatic breaking
waves. Here, an unknown photographer
has leveraged that achievement --
either by taking such a negative or
by purchasing one -- and then using
it as a background for studio
portraits. While it seems likely
that this image was created near
Niagara Falls, it is possible that
the studio portrait could have been
made anywhere, and then combined
into a personalized souvenir. The
process begins by taking an ordinary
portrait, perhaps in a corner of the
studio with natural-looking rocks in
the foreground.
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Next,
the negative showing the man on the
rocks is printed onto the same piece of
photographic paper as the background.
Since everything else is covered with
opaque paint, only the figure will
print -- fitting neatly into the hole
left for it by the mask.
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Unidentified
Photographer: Man Seated Before a Breaking
Wave, Niagara River (Composite) Cabinet
Card, before 1886.
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