Playing with pictures : the art of Victorian photocollage

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Bibliographic Information

Playing with pictures : the art of Victorian photocollage

Elizabeth Siegel ; with additional essays by Patrizia Di Bello and Marta Weiss ; and contributions by Miranda Hofelt

Art Institute of Chicago , In association with Yale University Press, c2009

  • : hbk

Available at  / 7 libraries

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Note

"Playing with pictures : the art of Victorian photocollage was published in conjunction with an exhibiton of the same title organized by the Art Institute of Chicago"--T.p. verso

"Exhibition dates: the Art Institute of Chicago, October 10, 2009-January 3, 2010, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Feburuary 2-May 9, 2010, the Art Gallery of Ontario, June 5-September 5, 2010"--T.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Human heads on animal bodies, people in fanciful landscapes, faces that are deftly morphed into common household objects - these are among the Victorian experiments in photo collage seen and explained in this marvelous book. With sharp wit and dramatic shifts of scale, these images flouted the serious conventions of photography in the 1860s and 1870s. Often made by women for albums, they reveal the educated minds and accomplished hands of their makers, taking on the new theory of evolution, addressing the changing role of photography, and challenging the strict conventions of aristocratic society. Although these photo collages may seem wonderfully odd to us now, the authors argue that they are actually perfectly in keeping with the Victorian sensibility that embraced juxtaposition and variety. This delightful book, the first to examine comprehensively the little-known phenomenon of Victorian photo collage, presents imagery that has rarely - and, in many cases, never - been displayed or reproduced. Illuminating text provides a history of Victorian photo collage albums, identifies the common motifs found in them, and demonstrates the distinctly modern character of the medium, which paved the way for the future avant-garde potential of both photography and collage.

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