Photo-montage is the process of creating a photo through the process of cutting and sticking different images together, in order to present a single final image.

This technique was first introduced by “Dadaists” in 1915 in order to aid their protest against the First World War, and was later adopted by surrealists, resulting in the creation of work that broke the rules of conventional art, and expressed opinions (political, social e.t.c) through bold, noisy and nonsensical artwork.

Dadaism: A movement in European art and literature where artists disregarded the conventional aesthetics of art produced at the time, and instead created bold, nonsensical and ridiculous artwork in order to either voice opinions in an over the top fashion, or to ridicule the meaningless of certain aspects of the modern world.

Photo-montage can be used to create abstract and surreal artwork, and the introduction of Photoshop and photo editing software has made the creation of photo-montage images much easier for many. Below are a collection of images where artists have created photo-montages:

Photo-montage  has developed through the years, and was wildly popular during the 20th century among the more forward thinking, rebellious artists and photographers who wanted to break the rules of conventional artwork. Hannah Hoch is an example of an artist who used photo-montage to express her critiques of society, politics and the way art was viewed during her time. Below is a mood-board including some examples of her photo-montage work:

Hoch didn’t shy away from expressing her opinions, and often portrayed female equality and feminism in her work, which was a new subject that went against the more conservative beliefs of the public at the time (and so was welcomed by Dadaists).

Photomontage has continued to be a popular form of expressionism even through modern times, with artists often expressing their opinions on current political events through the use of photomontage. Modern photographers and artists who express themselves through the use of photomontage include Scott Treleaven and Peter Kennard.

Examples of Peter Kennard’s work can be seen below, in which some of the images are clearly critical of the current political situation in the UK and USA:

Photomontage has evolved along with the political and social struggles that artists use it to convey. Modern technology has enabled photomontages to be created only using a computer, without the need for physically cutting or sticking. This has allowed for many artists to more smoothly layer art together, to create montages of different photographs that seem like they fit together more easily. The increase in the publics political knowledge through the years has also allowed for artists to place more subtle critics of social and political events in their work, allowing for the meaning behind their images to become layered, and thus adding more to the image for the viewer to think about.