Street Urchins Tossing Chestnuts

A street urchin tosses a chestnut in the air as his bored companion looks on. It may look like a real-life scene caught by the camera, but in fact it is staged. Cameras were too slow in the 1850s to record something as quick-moving as a tossed chestnut. Therefore Oscar Rejlander (who is sometimes called the Father of Art Photography) suspended a chestnut in mid-air with a piece of fine thread in order to create the scene. The thread is barely visible if you examine a larger version of the picture.
Links and References
Lester, P. (1991). Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 92.
Photo Categories: Staged Scene, Movable Prop, Art, Children, Before 1900

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