Tableau vivant (often shortened tableau) is french for ‘living picture’ is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically lit. It thus combines aspects of theater and the visual arts.

Tableau can either be staged inside a controlled environment such as a photography studio or it can be made outside in a real life environment/situation, such as the forest.

Tableau photography can do so much in one freeze frame, such as tell a story, or recreate a memory or scene in a movie.