Georgiana Berkeley - Untitled album page, 1867/71

     This image shows the whimsical nature of many of the collages. Although it is untitled I believe that it was inspired by Charles Darwin’s (then) recently published Origin of Species. Here we have a fantastical bird and a giant tortoise, being ridden by a middle-aged lady and a small child – perhaps in the Galapagos Islands. The boat offshore would be the HMS Beagle, of course. This is a watercolor, the most common medium used.
     Many of the Collages have a whimsical nature as seen here. They are also often humorous, dreamlike or fantastical. Many reflect the mores of the English upper class at this time. Many featured cards – a popular pass time and an easy target for the photo-collage. Another popular theme was the spider web. One of the albums on display depicted a web with the author in the center, surrounded by here various family and acquaintances – a graphical representation of her social network. Also, many of the albums were collaborations between family and friends, and so authorship of a given page is often in question.
     I found many aspects of this exhibit intriguing. The whimsical and playful subjects do not fit in with most peoples ideas of the stolid British upper class of the Victorian Era. The technique foreshadows Photoshop by combining images and media. The albums changed the rules of photography – to quote from the Art Institute web site: “Instead of standing intact as images that referred to a person in a specific time and place, photographic portraits took on new meanings in newly invented contexts. Rather than showing a single point of view, photocollage combined numerous images made from multiple perspectives, and where photographs should have provided truthful records, albums gave rise to fantasy.”
     The albums are a unique window on the way of life of these Victorian ladies. I found the interactive albums to be especially interesting. It is one thing to see the framed pages on the walls or the albums themselves, open to a particular page, in their glass cases. However, paging through an entire album one sees the whole thing – in some sections it may be a simple photo album, in others the photographs are missing – were they removed by a later generation or simply never completed? The incomplete collages offer insight into their construction – which varied considerably. There were two primary approaches – drawing first, and then inserting the photographs, or using a photograph as an inspiration and drawing around it. Some were carefully planned in advance, others done on the spot. There were probably as many methods as there were artists.
     I found this exhibit enjoyable, perhaps more enjoyable than I expected. There is not much information of the web about Victorian photocollage – the best source I found is for this exhibit, at: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/VictPhotoColl/index I would recommend this show to anyone!