Photomontage vs Staged Photography

フォトモンタージュ / 演出写真

Photomontage comes from Photographic Techniques and Staged Photography from Photographic Genres. Both are read here as technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Photomontage

Photomontage — レイランダー『人生の二つの道』1857 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPhotomontage — ロビンソン『消えゆく命』1858 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPhotomontage — ロビンソン『夜明けと日没』 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0

Cuts and rejoins photographic fragments, assembling relations and critical meanings that never existed in the original reality.

Staged Photography

Staged Photography — キャメロン『リア王と三人の娘』1872 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Staged Photography — F・ホランド・デイによる演出肖像 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainStaged Photography — キャメロン『ミューズのささやき』1865 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Composes scene, figure, props and light before the shutter, shaking the very premise that photographs record reality.

PhotomontageStaged Photography
Era1910s–19th century– / 1970s revival
FamilyPhotographic TechniquesPhotographic Genres
KindTechniqueTechnique
CuesCut-out photographs / Mixed scales / Visible seams / Reused print matterConstructed scenes / Props / Cinematic lighting / Deliberate artificiality
Best used forTurning political or advertising rhetoric against itself with its own pictures · Showing scenes and relations that never existed with the force of photographyRestaging the conventions of advertising or news images to cast doubt on them · Building a story into one frame meant for exhibition, not for record
TypeCut headlines from existing print and paste them at unmatched sizesMake the text in the frame as a prop rather than borrowing a typeface
CompositionShift scale on purpose, putting small figures beside enormous objectsFix gaze and hand positions in advance and block the frame like a painting
MaterialMagazine and newspaper cuttings, paste, rephotography, seams kept or hiddenBuilt sets or models, cinematic lighting, large format shot and printed big
CautionCopying only the cutting and pasting leaves fragments side by side with no collision, and the criticism the method existed for never lands.Staging that only imitates a natural record leaves the assumption that photographs record reality untouched, and the whole reason for constructing the scene disappears.

Put these two together

Photographic Techniques ／ Photographic Genres

IndexStyle