Meghan Boody, All true histories contain instruction, 2010
Reader Matt Needham has found something I'd never seen before that is, well, fantastic! It's a timeline by one D. Haden of photography that s/he has dubbed "nu-real" (I gather, a compounding of "new" and "surreal"). "This website," says the introduction, "is about a constructed tableaux photography that seeks a relatively coherent and blended co-presence of elements, often presenting these as an enigma in a stage-like space. This 150-year old approach to visualising the fantastic is now flourishing in contemporary art photography...."
Naturally I know many of the artists and movements, have even written about some of them or featured them here on TOP; but some of them I don't know, which is cool, and, in any event, it's exciting to see them all laid out in a coherent timeline that attempts comprehensiveness, and discussed. I'm going to spend some time with this.
Nice find, Matt.
Mike
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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
And look! The first thing on the timeline is hand-composited attempts at dealing with HDR landscapes.
Posted by: Matthew Miller | Tuesday, 25 October 2011 at 09:54 PM
Dear Mike,
Liked the essay, loved the timeline.
But...
Frustrated by the lack of larger-than-thumbnail versions of the photographs. I only knew about half the works shown; the ones I didn't know were too small for me to parse visually.
A curious failure for a photography-history timeline.
pax / Ctein
Posted by: ctein | Tuesday, 25 October 2011 at 11:08 PM
Ctein,
I agree...I had to go Google some of the artists and works separately. Wasn't easy to do it with some. (Didn't try it with all.)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Tuesday, 25 October 2011 at 11:14 PM
Then everyone should have a look at the latest project by dutch photographer Erwin Olaf:
http://historiek.net/actueel/het-leidens-ontzet-volgens-fotograaf-erwin-olaf-5195
Posted by: Eduard de Kam | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 12:54 AM
"In her last years of life (circa 2005) Annie Leibovitz created an elaborate tableaux / photomontaged set for Vogue illustrating The Wizard of Oz."
Unfortunate choice of words; thank goodness she's still with us ...
Posted by: m3photo | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 02:36 AM
That is fascinating. I really like French postcard from 1905, 'Out at last' "...which possibly had political meaning to people at the time."
Posted by: The Lazy Aussie | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 04:42 AM
I HATE 'fantastical Photomontage' and Lartique has nothing to do with it!
Posted by: cb | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 06:39 AM
Why has he left out David Lachapelle?
Posted by: alex | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 08:27 AM
No mention of Joan Fontcuberta/Dr. Ameisenhaufen though. But he does have Dave McKean who is more known as a surrealist painter and illustrator than a photographer (to me anyway). He has a great commentary on surrealism on the DVD of MirrorMask by N Gaiman.
Posted by: Will | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 08:57 AM
Similar but different: "Russian Ark" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Ark). One take, no cuts, 96 minutes.
Posted by: Allan Sommerfield | Wednesday, 26 October 2011 at 07:13 PM