John Stezaker

John Stezaker’s work re-examines the various relationships to the photographic image: as a documentation of truth, purveyor of memory, and symbol of modern culture. In his collages, Stezaker appropriates images found in books, magazines, and postcards and uses them as ‘readymades’. Through his elegant juxtapositions, Stezaker adopts the content and contexts of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings.

Using publicity shots of classic film stars, Stezaker splices and overlaps famous faces, creating hybrid ‘icons’ that dissociate the familiar to create sensations of the uncanny. Coupling male and female identity into unified characters, Stezaker points to a disjointed harmony, where the irreconciliation of difference both complements and detracts.

Hannah Hoch

Hannah Höch was a German Dada artist who lived from November 1st, 1889 – May 31st 1978 . She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage is a type of collage in which the pasted items are actual photographs pulled from other sources of media or photography.

Höch’s work often focused on gender roles where she wanted to show that woman were just as capable and equal as men. Her active interest in challenging the status of women in the social world of her times motivated a long series of works that promoted the idea of the “New Woman” in the era.

Using the same techniques of photomontage, I wanted to create works where I would merge masculine traits with feminine traits. I was inspired to combine my own images with photos of masculine and feminine stereotypes in media.