A tableau vivant, 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 theatre and the visual arts; a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history.
Paul M Smith, uses MULTIPLE EXPOSURE TECHNIQUE
Tableau In Class
The two paintings which the class recreated were “Deposition / The Entombment of Christ” by Caravaggio, and “Liberty Leading the People” by Eugène Delacroix.
The Entombment of Christ – Caravaggio
Liberty Leading the People – Eugène Delacroix
Class Responses
Editing Of Class Response
Own Tableaux Response
Using Paul M Smith’s work as inspiration
Images by Paul M. Smith, from the collection: “Make My Night” http://www.paulmsmith.co.uk/
For my Tableaux Vivant and Paul M. Smith response, I would like to merge together and edit three separate images of the same subject; wearing different outfits, in different poses, and the in the same frame.
I will be responding to the renaissance work “Supper At Emmaus” – by Caravaggio; featured below.
Images
Image 1; used as base image for the final edit.
Edit
I have edited this image by using a base image as an anchor-point to synchronize the other images and the props, to do this I have also set the opacity of the other images to 50%.
After wards I cut out and set new layers for the crucial parts of the layering images e.g: Shadows, subjects. And then used the eraser tool with low hardness to ensure a smooth transition between the anchor image and the layer images.
For my tableau and staged reality photography, I’ve decided to center my theme around gender stereotypes, specifically with women. I will be looking at what women were portrayed as in the 1950’s, with the photographer I will be getting my inspiration from being Cindy Sherman.
I will be basing my work off of her images, and may throw in a few ideas of my own. I will be using other people to replicate these images and show the gender stereotypes. Items for both images I will be taking should be objects such as aprons, old-styled dresses and kitchen appliances. The places where they will take place will be simple, either in a kitchen or by a door, like in the original images done by Sherman.
Images by Cindy Sherman which I plan to replicate:
Now that I have experimented with using lots of different types of lighting and lighting effects, I will present my best outcomes from my photo shoots. During these photo shoots I learnt how all the technical camera settings should be set in order to make the images look good.
For this shoot we as a class experimented with different lighting, clothing and backgrounds to create a story centered around the London Underground and with a stereotypical ‘thug’ like model. The model is wearing a hooded puffer jacket, has minimal makeup and is in a slouched position in order to create this atmosphere.
This is a gallery of the photos I took; you can see each adaptation of the lighting, position and facial expressions throughout.
I began the shoot with using a key light quite brightly in front of the model and I think this looked good and illuminated it in a way that resembled the underground but I wanted the temperature to be warmer and darker so it looked more like a ‘grotty’ atmosphere. I also experimented with angles and closeness, e.g for most photo I was a good distance away and her hood was up so I didn’t get a lot of the model’s features in the photos, it was concentrated more on the background and her clothing. After this she took her hood down and I positioned myself closer up to capture more detail. Some of these photos also have more hard lighting to show the shadows and relate it to the location. For the last part I stood further away but got still a more portrait type photo which included the background.
Best outcomes for each stage of the shoot:
In my opinion the photo above looks the most realistic due to the harsh above lighting which only shows some facial aspects so the gender of the model isn’t necessarily clear. I also like the shadow which has been created by the light and how the background looks like it could be genuinely taken in the underground.
You can use flash in portraiture in a range of dark and light places. It is stereo typically used in places where it is dark, but you can also create interesting effects in light ares using it. There are many types of flashes and techniques that can be used:
Bounce flash
This is when you point the flash in a different direction, rather than directly at your subject, in order for the light to soften before it hits your subject. It’s typically bounced at an angle, at something like a wall or a ceiling.
Below is a diagram that explains how the ‘bounce flash’ technique is used compared to direct flash:
fill-in flash
This is a technique that’s used to brighten up shadowed areas. This is usually used when the background is a lot brighter that the actual subject, and using this will make your subject appear well lit and not underexposed compared to the background.
To use fill flash, the aperture and the shutter speed should be correctly adjusted to expose the background, and the flash is then fired to lighten the foreground (usually the subject)
Below is an example of how using fill flash can make your images look good. The image on the left has the background perfectly exposed, and the image on the right is how the image looked when you took it with flash. As you can see, the image on the right is very successful as you can see the sky in the background, and the subject is also perfectly exposed due to the use of the flash.
Not my images.
Below is also a video that shows a range of techniques and tips on how to use fill flash:
Speedlight flash
This is also known as a hot shoe flash. This is a flash that is inserted onto the top part of the camera and is triggered then the cameras shutter takes an image
Contact sheets
For this photo shoot I pictured my model while she was wearing makeup on her face. This demonstrated how, by using a flash, many details can be noticed in the dark.
Most studio photography typically uses a solid fill background with various lighting techniques. soft lighting will often be used when working with portraiture however different photographers will experiment with various techniques. Such as chiaroscuro lighting which involves only lighting one side of the subjects face, this is similar to Rembrandt lighting however this leaves a triangle on his cheek lit.
Tom Hunter is a renowned British Photographer who is currently based in East London. Hunter was born in Dorset in 1965. In 1980 when he was 15 years old, he left school and began to work on a farm for a year and later moved onto work for the Forestry Commission in Dorset. In 1986 Tom Hunter moved to Hackney and began work as a Tree Surgeon. 4 years later in 1990, he attended A-Level Photography evening classes at Kingsway College in London.
Hunter is best known for his re-staging of historical tableaux portraits and making them more contemporary and fitting his narratives. Below is an example of this. Tom Hunter draws inspiration from Victorian paintings and Dutch Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite master painters. His re-creation of the Ophelia painting shows a young girl on her walk home coming back from a rave and falling into a slippery canal area in an desolate industrialized area.The Walk Home – Tom Hunter
Ophelia 1851-2 Sir John Everett Millais
Unheralded Stories
Unheralded Stories by Tom Hunter is a series of photographs which depict the folklore and myths that were built up around his community and surroundings in Hackney over the past twenty-five years. The photographs reference historical tableaux paintings to create striking mythical images which celebrate life by transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. There are 10 photos in this series, these are the ones I am drawn to the most.
In Anchor and Hope, 2009. It is clear to see the reference from Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World, 1948 it depicts a memory of pitched battles with the council as squatters organized a self-supporting community in a Clapton estate bordering Springfield Park.
Christina’s World , Andrew Wyeth, 1938
Tom Hunter – Anchor and HopeTom Hunter – Hackney CutTom Hunter – Death of Coltelli
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. It thus combines aspects of theatre and the visual arts.Staged reality is a main aspect of tableaux vivant in which the photographer captures an artificially constructed scene.
Tom Hunter
Tom Hunter (born 1965) is a London-based British artist working in photography and film. His photographs often reference and re imagine classical paintings. He studied at the London College of Printing, and was the first photographer to have a one-man show at the National Gallery of London.
He worked alongside friends, neighbours and family to recreate others work but in a much more modern way. For instance the picture on the left is not this own work it is in fact Johannes Vermeer artwork which entails a young girl standing by a window reading a love letter from her man who is far away, possibly at war. Hunter has recreated Vermeer’s work but with a modern update, the women isn’t holding a love letter she is holding an eviction notice. Tom has spent time with the people he takes pictures, for instance he lived on the same tower block as his women, he knew the problem she was going through as he was also being evicted. Even though the to photos are very similar, there are underlying differences, for instance the open window on the left and the light flooding through has connotations of hope and freedom as she is happy her lover is still alive, whereas on the right the window is closed this has connotations of being trapped with no hope for the future, now she is homeless with a baby. As well as that on the left there is a bowl of fruits yet on the right there is a baby, this is symbolic of the fact that the women on the right has a lot more to lose then the women on the left, fruits can be eaten but a baby can’t just be thrown away, it needs love and care and a roof over its head. There is a clear rule of thirds in this photo, this is symbolic of how the women on the left has a structured path in life, its all going in one direction, she can see her path clearly because soon the war will be over and she can marry the man she is in love with. Whereas the women on the right, her rule of thirds represents a sense of being trapped, she can’t escape this harsh cycle of council housing, she is stuck in this rule of thirds layout.
Recreation
The Raft of the Medusa Painting by Théodore Géricault
This painting was fairly hard to recreate considering it is located on a raft at sea and there are lots of people involved in the photo. We tried to modernize the photo as much as possible for instance we made sure ‘the north face jacket’ which was acting as a flag was clear too see, as the brands represent how society nowadays is materialist and how we need the best of the best not just unbranded, our whole world revolves around money and out doing each other. We were all at different levels in order to create a pyramid shape, a pyramid having connotations of strength, power and sturdiness. As well that it represents society and how those at the top thrive and survive but those ones at the bottom struggle and fail.
Tom Walker
I recreated this photo in school near the window by art. I had to select the window on Photoshop and decrease the exposure as the light coming through was over-exposed and too bright. I also increased the contrast to add depth and emphasis the light outside against the darkness inside. This symbolizes how the girl in the Tom Walker photo was exposed to the light and sunny world but under the surface the world was creating more troubles for her then happiness and the weather can’t change the fact that she is a single mum without a home. It’s as if the world is trying to sugarcoat all her worries with clear skies, but she can’t see its true beauty, the only thing she can see is the eviction letter she is holding.
“Tom Hunter is Professor of Photography Research at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, graduated from the London College of Printing in 1994 with his work ‘The Ghetto’, which is now on permanent display at the Museum of London.
He studied for his MA at the Royal College of Art, where, in 1996, he was awarded the Photography Prize by Fuji Film for his series ‘Travelers’.
In 1998 ‘Woman Reading a Possession Order’ from his series ‘Persons Unknown’, won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery.
In 1999 Tom’s series of the ‘Holly Street’ estate was exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, London, while in 2000 his ‘Life and Death in Hackney’ series, went on show at the White Cube Gallery and the Manchester City Art Gallery.
In 2006 Tom became the only artist to have a solo photography show at the National Gallery for his series ‘Living in Hell and Other Stories’, which talked about Hackney and its relationship to its local paper.
His works are in many collections around the world including; MOMA in New York, Tate Britain, The V&A and the National Gallery in London, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Smithsonian in Washington and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2010 he was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.”
– Words taken from Tom Hunter’s Website.
I have also come to learn that Tom Hunter lived abroad for a period of life. He was part of a group of people with the generic name “New Age Travelers”. In a series of photographs he captured images of the essence of the life he lived whilst travelling round Europe in motor homes with other people like himself, some families, some old married couples. He also captured images of the people he traveled with in a tableaux vivant stylist way which he has now published on his website, in books of his and in galleries across the UK.
The Walk Home – Tom Hunter
Christina’s World , Andrew Wyeth, 1938
Tom Hunter – Hackney Cut
Tom Hunter – Death of Coltelli
