Photograph by: Oscar Gustave Rejlander Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
The debate about the role of photography is as old as the medium itself. Some think of it strictly for documentation purposes, while others have worked arduously to prove it as an important art form. Oscar Gustave Rejlander, one of the pioneers of art photography and photomontage, supported the latter. The image above, Two Ways of Life, is one such example. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is “one of the most ambitious and controversial photographs of the nineteenth century.” Created in 1857 with a technique called combination printing (first suggested by Hippolyte Bayard), Rejlander’s work is the earliest recorded example of this process. It was impossible to achieve such an elaborate setup in one image. So, he rigorously photographed each subject and background individually, creating over thirty negatives (wet collodion on glass) that were later combined into a single print. The image symbolises the choice between vice and virtue, represented by two young men. The one on the left rushes towards pleasures of lust, gambling, and idleness, while the other chooses the path of religion, marriage, and good work.
The photograph was exhibited at a Manchester art exhibition in 1857. It instantly garnered appreciation from everyone, including Queen Victoria, who gifted the work to Prince Albert. However, the initial excitement began to fade, sparking a great debate regarding the use of nudity in photography and the benefits of this technique to the development of photography as an art form. The photographic community in Scotland even refused its inclusion in their annual exhibition. By the time of his death (1875), Rejlander’s reputation began to wane. It never recovered from the scandal surrounding the artwork and he passed away as an impoverished artist. Speaking about his artwork, Lori Pauli, Curator of Photographs at the National Gallery of Canada, said, “For many, Rejlander was regarded as something of an aberration, whose only contribution to the medium was an overly complicated and slightly risqué Victorian morality tale. Perhaps now, with time, we can see his contribution to the history of photography more clearly. Perhaps Rejlander, ever the joker, will have the last laugh.”
This article originally appeared in the July 2022 issue of Better Photography.