others continued to acknowledge its creative uses.
Since the 1960s and to the end of the century,
staged photography was resurrected by numerous
influential and disparate artists who exploited in
particular the political and social uses of this
approach.
In contemporary art circles of the 1960s and
1970s, staged photography became a common, at
times even preferred working method. Artists
turned to creating their subject matter for differ-
ent reasons: this type of photography provided
more time and control to compose the image
and make the necessary technical and aesthetic
decisions. Additionally artists could enhance the
initial image by re-working the elements upon the
stage and re-photographing the set. Another rea-
son for using this approach is linked to the aes-
thetic: staged photographs revealed the ways the
image can be un-true, highlighted the constructed
and even relative nature of reality and photo-
graphic ‘‘truth.’’ Revealing and incorporating the
artifice of photography and photographs, and
using it as an important element to express the
artistic message, the photograph is no longer an
authorless text, to use the language of philoso-
phers Roland Barthes or Claude Levi-Strauss.
By highlighting artifice, artists can create their
own narratives and realities based upon their per-
sonal experiences drawn from any number of
sources including memories, fantasies, and poli-
tics, as well as in relation to (or reaction against)
external influences such as history, economics,
patriarchy, and so forth. Staged (and fabricated)
images thus challenge photographic realism, con-
ventions, genres, or disrupt how photography is
perceived and interpreted.
To foreground the artifice, clues are incorpo-
rated within the pictorial frame to signal the
photo is a product of the photographer-artist’s
imagination. Although this can be accomplished
in a variety of ways several techniques predomi-
nate. Some photographers allow the signs of the
medium, including the equipment or signs of the
camera, remain in the image. Having the studio
lights, extension cords, or backdrops visible and a
part of the photographic composition reveals how
the image is technically produced. Conventionally,
evidence of the photographic production is dis-
guised or hidden because exposing the production
interrupts the seamless realism expected from
photographs. A second way to challenge photo-
graphic realism is the artist’s treatment of the sub-
ject matter: having the image somehow defy the
laws governing the universe (such as time, space,
and gravity), the improbability hence incredulity of
the photo is made apparent. Third, distortions or
inconsistencies in scale or volume, playing with
horizon lines, the use of unconventional camera
angles and perspectives, or cropping the subject
matter in a way that inhibits immediate under-
standing of the imagery prevents the audience
from quickly and easily recognizing specific
objects. Such ambiguous or obscure imagery places
demands upon the viewer: it requires him or her to
use imagination to formulate meanings rather than
looking to the photograph for information or
answers. It should also be mentioned that the con-
text in which the final photograph is viewed (in an
art gallery or in a fine art photography book) also
contributes to interpreting it as constructed for a
specific purpose.
Although various characteristics of the staged
photograph are available to the contemporary
photography, it is not necessary that all of the
aforementioned be present in each image. Further-
more, these elements can be used in an overt or
subtle manner; for example, the viewer knows that
Sandy Skoglund has constructed her sets prior to
be photographed. InFox Games (1989), all the
elements in the restaurant (walls, tables, chairs,
bread loaves, etc.) are painted in the same mono-
tone gray, which signals that the restaurant itself is
not part of the viewer’s phenomenal or optical
reality. However, it is the many brightly colored
red foxes running, walking, or hopping into the
frame that simply look unnatural even though
they were modeled on actual foxes, but even more
from their coloring. From this, the audience
quickly recognizes the constructed nature of the
image. On the other hand, the work of Jeff Wall
uses a subtler approach to his tableau, and some-
times it is difficult to discern his tampering. In the
images he made without the use of digital technol-
ogy, such asUntangling(1994), the photo appears
more like a snapshot of a garage worker untangling
huge blue ropes rather than an obviously con-
structed image. However, Wall’s working method
is based on constructing a theatre with all the
necessary props and people in place before he cap-
tures the decisive moment.
One way that staged photography has been used
to comment on its use within scientific circles is
found in the work of American artist Patrick Naga-
tani. Using the field journals of Japanese archeol-
ogist Ryoichi, Nagatani created Excavations,
(2001) in which he stages an archeological dig.
The viewers are given glimpses of the top of Volks-
wagen ‘‘Beetle’’ cars as they are unearthed at Xi’an,
Necroplis of Mt. Li’, Shanxi Province, China 1988.
Nagatani’s series uses photography and con-CONSTRUCTED REALITY