ABSTRACT
Renewed emphasis on constructed tableaux that began in the 1980s has been made possible by advances in technology - in particular, the opportunity to manipulate reality convincingly using digital techniques, to present expansive scenes in an impressive amount of detail, and to print these at a very large size for display. This has allowed photographers to present Staged Tableaux on the scale of 19th-century history paintings. While the tone of these Staged Tableaux is often surreal, enigmatic and emotionally detached, the approach to storytelling in this form is divergent in both scale and in the extent to which narrative elements are assembled, created or directed. The melodramatic potential of the domestic setting has ensured it has remained a recurring motif across different approaches to Staged Tableaux, creating images that position the viewer as voyeur.
