Undergraduate thesis explores the artistic principle of tableau vivant in photography and, through an analysis of Jeff Wall’s oeuvre, demonstrates how this principle became a tool for critical reflection on the reality of the photographic image and representation. The term tableau vivant – living picture – first appeared in the Middle Ages as a designation for static portrayals in Passion processions. In addition to its ties to performing arts, the photographic tableau vivant also emerges in relation to the pictorial image. Early photographic tableaux vivants remained traditionally bound to painterly conventions, whereas Jeff Wall, in the 1970s and 1980s, reinterpreted the principle into a new form of photographic image. In his work, he adopts all the key features of the principle – staging, narrativity, and theatricality. As a photographer-painter, he directly references art historical models while simultaneously questioning the traditional understanding of the image’s truth value. Through the principle of tableau vivant, he encourages the viewer to engage in critical reflection on the reality of the photographic image and their own position within it.
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