These collages are very, very odd. Comically whimsical and borderline frightening — a la Alice in Wonderland. And I have to say: I have a newfound respect for the Victorian women who made them. In the late 19th century, photography was all the rage — but it was dominated by men.
Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Courtesy of V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Courtesy of George Eastman House
Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago
Courtesy of Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, New York
Courtesy of Hans P. Kraus Jr., New York
Courtesy of Paul F. Walter
Courtesy of George Eastman House
Women posed for photographs and collected photos of friends and family, but they rarely snapped the shutter. (OK fine, there were some female photographers, but they were way outnumbered.) So it's interesting to see some of the other things women did with their photo collections. Playing with Pictures, a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, takes a look at those Victorian photo collages.
Malcolm Daniel, curator in charge of the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan, had this to say in the exhibition's press release:
What is so exciting about this exhibition is that we see a different type of artist — almost exclusively aristocratic women — using photography in highly imaginative ways, and
creating pictures meant for private pleasure rather than public consumption. It is an
aspect of photography's history that has rarely been seen or written about.
It's funny to compare this crafty stuff with, say, the photo montages of the Dadaist, abstract expressionist or surrealist movements. You might say it really spiraled out of control.
Read more after the jump!
Plenty of artists are still using the technique today — like Joanne Leonard, a bastion of the female Victorian legacy. But unlike her predecessors, Leonard takes the photos, too.
And it's taken on new life in the digital age. Check out National Geographic's infinite photograph. It's basically an ... infinite photo collage of photos submitted by users:
And there are other kitschy applications floating around the Web like this one, which allows you to assemble your photos in a certain shape, and this Steve Jobs collage of gadgets, for all you technophiles out there:
Anyway, we could go on forever about how people play with pictures. It's fun and, if you're a Victorian woman, it's really weird. The exhibition will be on display from Feb. 2 — May 9, 2010.
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