photographs are set up or produced in some man-
ner, a key distinguishing feature of fabricated and
staged images is the reason for the construction: to
express the artist’s subjective experiences rather
than producing objective photographic documents
of the world.
There are many historical (nineteenth century)
precedents for the both the staged and fabricated
image. Julia Margaret Cameron (British, 1815–
1879), as part of her leisure activities, staged and
photographed specific events, moments, and char-
acters based upon religious, literary, poetic, and
mythological sources. She became the director
and producer of her images in various ways: creat-
ing costumes for her sitters (such as fashioning
angel wings from paper), selecting and arranging
props, and using dramatic lighting to heighten the
theatricality of her tableaux.
In addition to constructing the final image,
other photographers, such as Oscar Gustave Rej-
lander (Swedish, active in England; 1813–1875)
fabricated their realities through combination
printing where many different negatives were
used to produce a photograph of an imaginary
event. InThe Two Ways of Life(1857), Rejlander
used as many as 30 negatives layered in his com-
bination print to depict the Victorian notion
regarding the choices between good and evil.
Henry Peach Robinson (British; 1830–1901), on
the other hand, only used five negatives inFading
Away (1858) to create a romantic notion of a
young woman upon her deathbed. These techni-
ques were particularly evocative of a pictorialist
approach that pursued painterly aims in the ser-
vice of photography.
Early commercial studios, such as the William
Notman Studio, offered their patrons a unique
type of image in addition to standard portrai-
ture—those created by collage and photomontage.
During the 1860s, the Notman studios, whose
headquarters were in Montre ́al (with studios in
Toronto, Ottawa, St. John, Halifax, and Boston),
became well known for their ambitious indoor stu-
dio images that reconstructed winter activities.
Dressed in the appropriate attire, clients were posi-
tioned in front of elaborately painted backdrops
and posed with props to stage sledding, skating,
and hunting scenes. Additionally, Notman studios
also created complex group scenes consisting of
many people participating in, for example, huge
skating parties. With a preconceived idea of the
final image that was worked out in sketches, sepa-
rate photographs of people arranged in particular
groupings were taken in his studio, and through
combination printing and/or collage, an image of
an event that never took place was fabricated.
During the twentieth century, artists and scho-
lars increasingly questioned and challenged tradi-
tional photographic practices. Photographers were
viewed as more than mediators of the material
world, they were constructors of it. Their goal
was not limited to making literal translation of
the world, capturing the ‘‘decisive moment’’ on
film to produce artistic images displaying nature’s
beauty, or providing documents that supplied
information, evidence, or proof. Rather, it was
argued that photographs were directly connected
to the political, the psychological, and ideology
among other aspects of the social world. Photo-
graphs were interpreted as a form of representation
rather than valued only for their verisimilitude.
In various ways during the first half of the twen-
tieth century, artists used photography to challenge
its very definition as well as how their viewers
perceived photographs. Disruptions to the image
can be seen in the work of Russian Constructivist
El Lissitzky, notablyThe Constructor(1924) where
a photographic self-portrait is combined with
images of the tools, diagrams, and lettering related
to architectural design. From the title and the ima-
gery, the man depicted seems to be the creator of
his own image rather than simply having his por-
trait taken. The Dadaists, believing that modern
society was essentially irrational thus its art should
be equally irrational, used photography in ways
that challenged traditional and conventional defi-
nitions and uses of photography, including the way
that photographs were taken. Rejecting the use of a
camera, film, and traditional photographic work-
ing methods, Man Ray created ‘‘Rayographs’’
(also known as photograms) arranging objects on
photographic paper that were exposed to light. The
resulting images were nonrepresentational and
characterized by spatial and visual ambiguity. Ger-
man Dadaist John Heartfield selected and arranged
pre-existing photographs into new and specific nar-
ratives. His photomontages were accompanied by
scathing captions that satirized Nazi Germany as
they raised leftist political consciousness.
Since the early twentieth century, particular
schools of artists have used staged and fabricated
photography within various genres such as por-
traiture, landscape, still life, and reportage photo-
graphy. Within these genres, they have addressed
various social concerns including issues of gender,
class, race, and history. Although staged, manipu-
lated, and artificial images fell out of favor among
many modernist photographers at mid-century,CONSTRUCTED REALITY