Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tableau Vivant (Part 1)

A young boy peers expectantly into a cabinet with untold wonders.

This is a tableau vivant (French for “living picture”). Before the advent of radio and television, tableaux vivants were a popular form of entertainment. Costumed “actors” would pose on a theater stage without moving or speaking, one scene following another - in effect telling a story. With the advent of photography in the mid nineteenth century, early fine art photographers took up the tableau vivant as an approach to picture making.

"The Majik Box", 13"x19", Claria ink on paper, 2008

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