Surround, Background, and the Overlooked

This piece invites attention to the background of photographs, or, as James Elkins would call it, the surround. He argues that the characteristics of the surround mean that this feature can be used to distinguish the genre of photography from that of painting. This essay maintains that there is much more of an overlap between photography and painting in this respect than he allows, since photographic surrounds were frequently artificial, or depended on aesthetic effects. It considers two different types of Victorian and early Edwardian photographs to support this claim: studio portraits, especially those featuring members of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show posed against non-Native scenes; and those in which atmospheric darkness was created through flash.