What is Tableaux Vivants?

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO TATE DEFINITION

A tableau vivant (often shortened to tableau, plural: tableaux vivants), 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.

Tableau Ideas and Starting points

• re-create or re-enact an existing story-based photograph or painting, or scene from a film or even an album cover
• You could …illustrate a poem, story, song lyrics, fable, moral, mythology, legend, dream etc
• You could portray…one or more of The Ten Commandments
• You could elaborate on…one or more of The Seven Deadly Sins

             Tableau Photography is staged. Think of it like theatre.

              Tableau Photography is dependent on a defined NARRATIVE, theme or storyline

Blog Post 1 / TASK 1 .(extend and complete for homework)

1. You must develop and PLAN a story / part of a story that involves at least 1 x character.
2. You could / should explore gender roles, masculinity, forms of social commentary, sexism, feminism, equality, isolation, belonging, alienation, disenchantment, political agendas, hierarchies, power, status, imperialism, bullying, environmental concerns etc
3. Include props, backgrounds, costumes and outfits and mise en scene that connects to your theme somehow.
4. Introduce symbolism and metaphor in your image(s) and produce a series of images (like stills from a film)
5. You may want use the lighting studio…or experiment with suitable locations (connect the location to the theme / storyline)

Final Outcomes : a choice of

1. 3-5 photographs that clearly show your understanding of TABLEAU and STAGED REALITY
2. GIFS / TIME LAPSE / SLOW-MO
3. STOP FRAME ANIMATIONS
4. A SHORT FILM (can include sound , soundtrack)

Blog Post 2 / TASK 2 (minimum 1 x blog post)

1.  Choose a Tableau photographer to research from the list below
2. Analyse and evaluate a key image by your chosen artist : A CASE STUDY
3. Demonstrate creative links to your own idea

COMPLETE TABLEAU UNIT BY FRIDAY 14th DECEMBER

Example 1 :

Just a few notes on DiCorcia’s working methodology:

• Dicorcia’s work is a mixture of documentary and staged tableaux for which he is best known
• Well known for his use of lighting in street photography
• While shooting Hustlers, he paid his subjects, causing controversy in the photographic community
• DiCorcia only plans / stages his photographs up to a point and then relies on something unexpected to happen
• He does digitally manipulate some of his images by removing or adding items
• He does not direct people
• Very often he does not know his subjects
• He usually has his camera on a tripod
• Sets his photos up so that the viewer can assert his/her own interpretation to the image – open narrative

DiCorcia has no patience for visual passivity. “I’ve been trying to create photographs in which the emotional and psychological content is time-released… From the very beginning, I was fighting against this media-created idea that imagery is so disposable that it’s exhausted within a very short amount of time.” His tendency is to slow time down, an apprehension that has nothing to do with entropy. Instead, it is a seduction into the act of looking.

Example 2 : 

• He uses a large format camera and tripod
• He uses polaroids for planning out his scenes
• Draws inspiration from iconic Victorian paintings and recreates the scenes in a contemporary setting
• Infuses the mood of the Victorian paintings into his modern industrial settings
• His work is socially aware and pays tribute to art history
• He uses well known art motifs in his work, e.g. the window as in Vermeer’s paintings
• His portraiture pays tribute to the Dutch Renaissance and pre-Raphaelite master painters
• He simulates similar colours and tones as those used by Vermeer
• His portraits are of the disenfranchised people living close to the margins of society
• His work is a blend of fictional and factual
• He most often replicates Vermeer’s methods of portraiture:

… amongst the art historical references glimpsed within Hunter’s oeuvre, the voyeurism of Vermeer is most discernible. Subjects are often shown full figure, in private spheres (e.g. sites of domesticity), and set in the mid-ground in order to include something of their environment.

Birch, Tim

You must show that you know and understand that…

Tableau Photography makes use of symbolism and metaphor.

Allegorical paintings / photographs contain metaphor and symbolism

Pictorialist Photography was the starting point for  Tableaux art

Narrative is vital to successful tableau / staged reality

here are some examples that could inspire your own ideas…

Research each of these examples…

Historical / Contextual Example :

The Raft of The Medusa…Theodore Gericault

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/romanticism/romanticism-in-france/v/g-ricault-raft-of-the-medusa-1818-19

Ensure you have enough evidence of…

1. moodboards
2. mindmaps
3. case studies (artist references)
4. action plans
5. photoshoots + contact sheets (annotated)
6. appropriate selection and editing techniques
7. presentation of final ideas and personal responses
8. analysis and evaluation of process
9. compare and contrast to a key photographer
10. critique / review / reflection of your work

Concept : Rankin on “beautiful portraits”

Studio Lighting

Exploring Technique

1. Natural Light

Remember >>>Photography is completely dependent on the availability of  light.

In most cases we can make use of natural or available / ambient light…but we must be aware of different kinds of natural light and learn how to exploit it thoughtfully and creatively…

• intensity of the light
• direction of the light
• temperature of the light and white balance
• Using reflectors (silver / gold)

• Using diffusers , tissue paper, coloured gels, tracing paper etc
• Front / side / back lighting
• High Key / low key lighting
• Shadows / silhouettes

2. Studio Lighting

Using artificial lighting can offer many creative possibilities…so we will explore

• size and shape of light
• distance from subject to create hard / soft light
• angles and direction…high, low, side lighting
• filtered light
• camera settings : WB / ISO / shutter speed etc
• reflectors and diffusers
• key lighting, fill lighting, back lighting, 3 point lighting
• soft-boxes, umbrella lights, spot lights and floodlights
• chiarascuro and Rembrandt lighting
• high key and low key lighting techniques
• backdrops and infinity curves

Above : An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” area…try this wherever there are white walls/ ceilings

Using Flash

Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios…we will explore

• flash “bouncing”
• fill-in flash
• TTL / speedlight flash
• remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting)
• fast + slow synch flash
• light painting c/w slow shutter speeds

Evidence of Your Learning

During this weeks we would expect all students to complete 2-3 blog posts  detailing how you are experimenting with various lighting techniques eg CHIARASCURO / REMBRANDT LIGHTING

Add information / links showing how Chiarascuro has been used since the Renaissance in painting…but also how it used now in photography and film

You must describe and explain your process with each technique…add your images to your blog as you progress, print off your successful images and evaluate your process using technical vocab and analysis skills. Think carefully about the presentation of your ideas and outcomes…compare your work to relevant portrait photographers as you go eg

Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Rankin, Richard Avedon, Yousef Karsh, David Bailey, Mario Testino, Steve McCurry, Jill Greenberg, Nick Knight, Tim Walker, Corrine Day, Jane Bown etc

Expected Final Outcomes this Week

• Case Study and Practical Responses to Rankin or another studio photographer
• 1 x Final Portrait using natural light + analysis and evaluation
• 1 x Final Portrait using artificial light (1, 2 + 3 point lighting) + analysis and evaluation
• 1 x Final Portrait using flash + analysis and evaluation

Think about how you can show evidence of head shots, cropped head shots, half body, three-quarter length and full length portraits.

Show that you can employ interesting angles and viewpoints…

Make sure you ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN YOUR BLOG

• Why do we use studio lighting?
• What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide / solve
• What is fill lighting?
• What is spill lighting?
• What is Chiarascuro ? Show examples + your own experiments

Or use light painting techniques…

• Slow Shutter speeds (1/30th sec or BULB setting)
• Illuminate an area / person with a torch , study lamp, glowstick, car headlights etc…

HOMEWORK

(Refer to your tracking sheet)

1. You must complete a range of studio lighting experiments and present your strongest ideas on a separate blog post
2. Remember to select only the most successful images
3. You should be aiming to produce portraits that show clarity, focus and a clear understanding of a range of lighting techniques
4. Editing should be minimal at this point…we are looking for your camera skills here
5. But…be creative and experimental with your approach “in camera”…extremes, uniqueness and possibly thought provoking imagery will improve your ideas and outcomes.