Photographic Tableaux

Royal Blood, photographed by Erwin Olaf. 

Jean-François Chevrier was the first to coin the term Tableau in relation to a form of art photography, which began in the 1970s and 80s in an essay titled The Adventures of the Picture Form in the History of Photography in 1989. According to dictionary, the word Tableau means:

1. A vivid or graphic description;

2. A striking incidental scene, as of a picturesque group of people: "New public figures suddenly abound in the hitherto faceless totalitarian tableaux" (John McLaughlin).

3. An interlude during a scene when all the performers on stage freeze in position and then resume action as before.

There is no direct translation into English for the French word Tableau, which nowadays can be understood as living picture by the term of Tableaux Vivian. The initial translator, Michael Fried held the belief that, picture is similar, however "…it lacks the connotations of construction, of being the product of an intellectual act that the French word carries."

A photographic tableau has strong relation to the notion of Western Picture. Starting by using the format of photograph to reproduce another kind of art picture, mainly Western paintings, the tableau pictures grow roots in the so-called pictorialist photography. Good examples can be found in the photographs made by Alfred Stieglitz. Pictorialism, according to Jeff Wall could be seen as an attempt by photographers to unsuccessfully imitate painting. "Pictorialist photography was dazzled by the spectacle of Western painting and attempted, to some extent, to imitate it in acts of pure composition. Lacking the means to make the surface of its pictures unpredictable and important, the first phase of Pictorialism, Stieglitz's phase, emulated the fine graphic arts, reinvented the beautiful look, set standards for gorgeousness of composition, and faded."

The first key characteristic of the contemporary photographic tableau, according to Chevrier, is that the pictures are designed and produced for the wall. Summoning a confrontational experience on the part of the spectator that sharply contrasts with the habitual processes of appropriation and projection whereby photographic images are normally received and "consumed" in books and magazines.  

By this, the second characteristic of photographic tableau is its large scale and size. The relatively larger size for the photographs has another function besides the purpose for showing on walls; it distances the audience from the object. It makes you stand back from the picture to take it all in. This confrontational experience, Fried notes, is actually quite a large break from the conventional reception of photography, which up to that point was often consumed in other media formats.

Following the processes as quotation, excerption, framing, and staging, the imagery content for photographic tableau is emphasizing the construction of nature, a normal setting for a daily scene. As a production of intellectual acts, these photographs are trying to explore the inherent capabilities of the cameras. Jeff Wall argues that "by divesting itself of the encumbrances and advantages inherited from older art forms, reportage, or the spontaneous fleeting aspect of the photographic image pushes toward a discovery of qualities apparently intrinsic to the medium, qualities that must necessarily distinguish the medium from others and through the self-examination of which it can emerge as a modernist art on a plane with others.”