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Staged photography is a form ofphotography where the photographer, like adirector, stages everything in advance to have full control over how their idea is visualized. Although the staging of a photograph was already common in the early days of photography, it was not distinguished as a separate genre until the 1980s,[1] when some photographers began to establish themselves asconceptual artists.
In contrast to, for example, candid shots orstreet photography, in staged photography, little is left to chance. The photographer's role is also not that of an objective observer who documents what is happening around him. After all, according to this view, a photo is not a realistic representation of a fleeting moment, but a creation of the photographer's imagination; the photographer tries to create a new reality with his work.[citation needed] Post-processing also plays an important role in the creation of a conceptual photo.[citation needed] For example, elements of different images can be superimposed and next to each other. Practitioners of this genre often work in a studio, or seek out a special location to take their photos.[citation needed]
American criticA. D. Coleman proposed the termdirectorial mode attempting to define the emerging genre in his 1976 article forArtforum magazine.[2] The termstaged photography was introduced in 1987 in two publications: Andy Grundberg's and Kathleen McCarthy Gauss'Photography and Art. Interactions since 1946 and Anne H. Hoy'sFabrications. Staged, Altered, and Appropriated Photographs.[3]
Today the term is often used as ahyperonym for such picture-making (as opposed to picture-taking) concepts asfabricated,manipulated,creative,constructed,arranged,directorial, andtableau photography.[4]
In the Netherlands, staged photography started in the 1980s with theatricalstill lifes created in the studio. The exhibitionsStaged Photo Events (1982) in theLijnbaan Center inRotterdam[5] andFotografia Buffa (1986) in theGroninger Museum[6] were influential. Well-known Dutch photographers who practice this genre areRommert Boonstra, co-founder of the Rotterdam School,Teun Hocks,Pieter Laurens Mol,Paul de Nooijer andErwin Olaf.
Other representatives of staged photography arePhilip-Lorca diCorcia,Jeff Wall,Bruce Charlesworth,Tono Stano,Nanna Bisp Büchert,Lis Steincke, andJoel-Peter Witkin.[7]
Smith acknowledged that "staged photography... entered mainstream art full throttle in the 1980s with the arrival of the Pictures Generation and postmodernism.
