ABSTRACT
In 1839, a miracle transpired in Germany. Christ descended to earth and imprinted himself on an oak leaf. Or rather, it seemed like he did. In fact, the apparently mystical image was the work of Johann Carl Enslen (d. 1840), a pioneer in the field of photography. ‘Face of Christ Superimposed On An Oak Leaf’ (Fig. 5) is the first recorded example of photo-montage, the superimposition of one image over another to create a hybrid representation. 1 To produce the image, Enslen utilized the new technology of camera-less ‘photogenic drawing’, invented by English scientist William Henry Fox Talbot (d. 1877) in 1835. 2 After immersion in a weak salt solution and silver nitrate, a piece of paper would darken in proportion to the amount of light it received. By placing an object on top of the chemically primed sheet, a photographer could thus generate the object’s negative image. Exposing this negative to another primed sheet would produce a positive image of the object.
