This small carte de visite demonstrates a kind of photo-collage technique that was used in early photography. It was composed by cutting out the figures of the firing squad from a pre-existing photograph, dividing the squad in half, and placing the halves to either side of three larger figures onto which the victims' heads, also taken from earlier photos, were then placed. This composite was set against another, larger photograph showing the place of execution. This entire arrangement was then rephotographed to produce a single work.