Biography
She was born on November 1, 1889, Germany and died died May 31, 1978,West Germany. Höch was not only a rare female practicing prominently in the arts in the early part of the twentieth century – near unique as a female active in the Dada movement that coalesced in her time – she also consciously promoted the idea of women working creatively more generally in society. She explicitly addressed in her pioneering artwork in the form of photomontage the issue of gender and the figure of woman in modern society. Her transformation of the visual elements of others by integrating them into her own larger creative projects evidenced a well-developed early example of “appropriation” as an artistic technique.
Personal Thoughts
My initial emotional response to Hannah Hochs work was very negative and i had a strong dislike to it. I didnt like the style in which she created photomotage. I think this is because her images are quite strange and very individual. I found that the elements she put onto a portrait very different and didnt contrast well and looking at her images wasnt comfortable due to how she distorted the human face. However i was still intrigued by the concept of her work and wanted to try her style but in a more modern technique.
How to:
- In photoshop open a portrait that you want to be your base photo
- then open a lightly wierd portrait with features that you wantto cut and paste onto the base photo
- select the Lasso tool from the tool bar
- Click and drag the mouse around the feature that you want.
- then select the move tool
- drag the feature onto your base photo
- move the features around and use ‘Crtl T’ if you need until you get it in the place you want.
- you should now have a layered photomontage
