Oscar Gustave Rejlander, Two ways of life, 1857

Oscar Gustave Rejlander

5.12 1998 – 7.3 1999

Stockholm

Oscar Gustave Rejlander was a Swedish-born photographer who worked in Great britain. The museum collection contains 21 photographs, one of which is a version of his famous “Two ways of life”, a photograph produced from 39 negatives and that accounts for the critical choices a young man makes in his life.

During the period 1855 – 1875, Oscar Gustave Rejlander was one of Great Britain´s leading photographers. His works included portraits and staged classical or allegorical scenes which were based on paintings. The best known of these is “Two ways of life”. By putting together thirty negatives to form a single image the picture depicts the moral choices a young man must make in his life. This attracted a considerable amount of attention in 1857, an era of sexual prudishness, and was bought in the same year by Queen Victoria who gave it to her husband Prince Albert. The Moderna Museet´s exhibition includes 59 photographs and is being shown in collaboration with the Royal Photographic Society in Bath, UK.

Curator: Leif Wigh

Images

Oscar Gustave Rejlander
En slant tack, ca 1862-1868
© Oscar Gustave Rejlander
Oscar Gustave Rejlander
Kvinnoporträtt, Wolverhampton , ca 1860
© Oscar Gustave Rejlander