T

1373

TABER, ISAAC WEST (1830–1912)
Isaac West Taber was born in New Bedford, Massa-
chusetts on August 17, 1830. In 1854, Taber opened a
daguerrotype studio in the town, and with his brother
Freeman Augustus Taber, subsequently ran a studio in
Syracuse, New York, 1857–1864. Taber then moved to
San Francisco, operating on behalf of Bradley & Ru-
lofson until opening his own gallery in 1871. He took
over Carleton Watkins Gallery in 1876.
Taber exhibited prominently in the 1877 San Francisco
Art Association show, and the Mechanics’ Institute Ex-
hibition in 1880. In 1880, he published Photographic
Album of Principal Business Houses, Residences and
Persons, as a promotional venture, and photographed
Kalakaua, King of Hawaii during a Pacifi c cruise. In
1885 Taber developed a method for enlarging and print-
ing fi ngerprints, and opened a factory for dryplates. In
1894 Taber obtained exclusive rights to photograph
within the grounds of the San Francisco Midwinter Fair,
and in 1897 opened a branch of the Taber Bas Relief
Photographic Syndicate in London.
Taber’s studio was totally destroyed in the San Fran-
cisco earthquake of 1906, including 80 tons of portrait
negatives. He died at his home in San Francisco on
February 22, 1912.
David Webb

TABLEAUX
The tableau is a combination of visual and theatrical arts,
consisting of costumed fi gures arranged in static poses
so as to create the effect of a picture. In the nineteenth
century, the tableau vivant, or living picture, imitating
a well-known work of art or literary passage, was tre-
mendously popular both as a private amusement and
as public entertainment. In their most elaborate form,
carefully posed and lit tableaux were staged behind large

gilt frames, covered with a layer of gauze that imitated

the effect of varnish on an old painting (Stevenson, 45).

Tableaux fl ourished during photography’s fi rst half-cen-

tury, especially in Britain, where the two phenomena,

tableaux and photography, often coincided. Not only

did fi gures holding still in a tableau lend themselves to

being photographed, but to make an artistic or picto-

rial photograph with fi gures, one in effect had fi rst to

construct a tableau.

Taber, I. W. Glacier Point 3,201 feet, Yosemite, Cal.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles © The J. Paul Getty

Museum.