The Hold-Up
1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1884
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Hold-Up is a 1884 by Unknown, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two men in old-fashioned clothes pointing guns at a third man who’s holding up his hands. This isn’t a real crime—it’s a joke photo from the 1880s. Back then, cheap tintype pictures let people stage silly scenes at fairs. Everyone in the shot knew it was pretend. The guns are props, the poses are overdone, and the whole thing was probably a fun souvenir for friends. If you like these playful old photos, look up more under the subject “american, 19th century.”
Since the beginning of photography, objects and people have been purposefully arranged, or staged, for the camera. Popular in the late 1860s and 1870s, tintypes offered low prices and shortened exposure times. Perhaps because tintypists commonly worked at fairs and carnivals, frivolous images, such as this staged hold-up, became common. In these fictional scenes, all the participants were in on the joke. Some such scenes may be novelties, others may be gag portraits commissioned by groups of friends.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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