ART 332: Photography II Assignment 3: Tableau This assignment is meant to explore the creative potential of tableau. Control over all aspects of the image will be the focus of this body of work. You have the option of using the studio or portable lights. You must use live human models/actors. Tableau: noun 1. a vivid and wide-ranging description or display

2. a visually dramatic scene or situation that suddenly arises 3. Also: tableau vivant: a representation of a scene by a group in appropriate costume posing silent and motionless. (also, see tableau vivant on reverse)

In contemporary photography, tableau generally refers to a photograph of a meticulously constructed fictional scene. Sometimes these images are “hyper-real” or more detailed, dramatic, overblown, colorful, etc. than the reality being depicted. Sometimes the photographer chooses to “show the seams” of the construction of the image – including in the image cable releases, edges of backdrops, artificial looking props, unrealistic circumstances, etc. It is often used to point out the construction that goes into creation of the image, and by extension, all photographic image making and the construction of photographic meanings. They are often narrative, but not necessarily sequential. It similar to the “directorial mode”, but is distinct from environmental portraiture. The narrative need not be explicit – mystery and ambiguity can be powerful ways to engage an audience and compel them to spend some extra time with your work. Just a few artists working with photographic tableaus: Jeff Wall Gregory Crewdson Cindy Sherman Patrick Nagatani Tracey Moffatt Les Krims Joel Peter-Witkin Lucas Samaras Judy Dater David Levanthal William Wegman

Eileen Cowin Sandy Skoglund James Casbere Phillip Lorca diCorcia Andres Serrano Robert Mapplethorpe Carrie Mae Weems Lorna Simpson Mathew Barney Vanessa Beacroft Thomas Demand

Mariko Mori Sam Taylor-Wood John Armleder Yinka Shonibare Boyd Webb Duane Michals Laurie Simmons Gerlovina & Gerlovin Robert ParkeHarrison David Hilliard

Do this: Shoot at least 4 rolls of film (or equivalent digital images) and make 8 - 10 exhibition quality prints (ie. full resolution archival pigment-dye prints or fiber base silver gelatin). Your grade is dependent on your thoughtfulness and dedication to the creative process. Please remember this is an art class. Technical competence, inventiveness, originality and a solid conceptual approach are expected.

“Tableau” comes from “tableau vivant”. Excerpt from Wikipedia: Tableau vivant (plural: tableaux vivants) is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit. Throughout the duration of the display, the people shown do not speak or move. The approach thus marries the art forms of the stage with those of painting/photography, and as such it has been of interest to modern photographers. The most recent hey-day of the tableau vivant was the 19th century with virtually nude tableau vivants or "poses plastiques" providing a form of erotic entertainment. In Photography

Photograph by Hill and Adamson dated 1848, showing D O Hill sketching in Greyfriars Kirkyard, watched by the Misses Morris. Other tableaux in the same setting included The Artist and The Gravedigger. Tableau vivant was an approach to picture-making taken up by pioneers of early fine art photography, including David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the 1840s. Other notable examples are Oscar Gustave Rejlander's Two Ways of Life (1857) and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's 'Xie' work with Alexandra Kitchin such as St. George and the Dragon (1875). Today, the approach is exemplified by fine art photographers and artists such as Justine Kurland, Roger Ballen, Jan Saudek, Cindy Sherman, Sandy Skoglund, Gregory Crewdson, Jeff Wall, Amy Stein and Bernard Faucon. It has also influenced current trends in photocompositing.[2] Pictures of this sort are sometimes casually called "staged photography," but this is an imprecise term – since the simple posing of fashion models in the street is also 'staged photography'. Tableau vivant is a more precise term to use, if the staged picture obviously draws on the traditions and conventions of either the theatre or painting. Observe also that early photography involved exposure times in the minutes, so that there was the need to hold a pose.

Clockwise from top left: Cindy Sherman, Gregory Crewdson, Henry Peach Robinson, Joel Peter-Witkin, Boyd Web