New School of Photography

They spent their days in 1880s London darkrooms, sleeves rolled up and sleeves stained purple from collodion. The New School treated photography like stagecraft: one photographer fogged the lens with pipe tobacco, another glued cut-out wings to a sitters back and called it “truth.” Their trickiest stunt? A double exposure of a woman in a white dress where the second ghost-image always wore black—no retouching, just timing and breath held too long. Hunt down their Guy Little Theatrical Photograph and you’ll see what they meant by performance over proof.