Oscar Gustave Rejlander
Have you ever heard of the photographer Oscar Gustav Rejlander? He was famous in his times, but we don't even know where or when he was born. Sweden, for sure, likely in 1813. He was friends with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (AKA Lewis Carroll) and worked with Julia Margaret Cameron. Both of them were featured previously in DailyArt.
Oscar had a shaky start. He started his professional life in London as the proprietor of a photography studio, but had many sidesteps. He created erotic works with circus girls and portrayed street girls. From 1856 he took a far more serious direction. He wanted to explore how he could use the same negative twice and do some trickery. He became famous for his 'headless' people—where in printing he cut off the head of a model, then printed it elsewhere (sort of cut-and-paste). He made people look like they were holding their own head, or the heads of their loved ones. People found this hilarious.
For Oscar this was only the beginning. He thought of ways to create more elaborate montages. Like the one shown today, "The two ways of life". It shows an allegory created after Raphael's "School of Athens" (1511). Two young people are offered guidance by a male leader, the one with the beard in the middle. One is is the virtuous pleasure, the other the sinful pleasure. In the final print he combines 32 images, which took him six weeks to make and put together. The photo caused an outcry and great controversy. Look at all the indecent nudity! The indecency faded away quickly when queen Victoria ordered a copy. The success of this print made him famous and opened many doors. In 1872 he was asked by Charles Darwin to work with him for the publication of Darwin's book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. He created his fame within the scientific world, and contributed to the early research of psychology and psychiatry. With all his fame, he died a poor man in 1875. The Edinburgh Photographic Society had to raise money to help his widow.
- Erik