10 early photographic ‘fakes’ that trick the eye

1. Daydream (c. 1870-1890), anonymous

Two realities collide in the 19th century Visit medical record It was probably purchased for collecting and trading. Visit medical record A small, mass-produced print affixed to a card, it was very popular during the Victorian era. In this work, the present is seen. Both women and their partners have tools of the trade. And the imagined future is her fantasy of becoming a mother. Looseboom said the image was a “darkroom trick” achieved by shielding a section of the photographic paper from light and later adding a second negative to it. Images like this took photography to a new dimension, hinting at the subject’s innermost thoughts and paving the way for future comics with speech bubbles and thought clouds.

Provided by Rijksmuseum

2. A Man Amazed by His Own Reflection (c. 1870-1880), Leonard de Koning

In this comical memento mori, in which a man confronts his own ghost, painter and photographer Leonard de Koning exposed only half of a photographic plate and had his subject strike a different pose before exposing the other half. Photography may have been a relatively new art, but the transition between two images is imperceptible. “It’s like a magician,” Looseboom marvels. “I know I’m being fooled, but I don’t know how the photographer fools me,” said photographer Robert Sobieszek (1943-2005), quoting Oskar Gustave Leylander, a pioneer of this type of composite printing. said: “This method led to truth rather than falsehood. An image created by a single negative.” [claimed Rejlander] “That’s not true and never will be. The focus shouldn’t be anywhere.”

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3. Decapitation (c. 1880-1900), FM Staple

“While we still expect photographs to bring us truth, this idea really only emerged from illustrated magazines in the 1930s to inform readers of how things worked in other parts of the world,” says Looseboom. Until then, the creative freedom to change images was not challenged. “We’re going to try and produce whatever we can,” he says. “There were no ethical constraints on producing unrealistic images; no one forbade this.” For example, removing someone’s head and moving it presented the photographer with a fun puzzle. In the case of this cabinet card, the style of printing mounted on the card is carried over from the smaller cabinet cards. Visit medical record By the 1880s, its dark humor made this creative mission a huge success. The position of the curtain to hide the original head and light retouching visible under a microscope are the only clues to how the photographer created the deception.