Creating photo montages

In order to understand more about photo montages, i created multiple montages using adobe Photoshop. When creating my montages i used Eugenia Loli as a inspiration for my images as i though her photo montages were very unique ( separate page on her work).

In this experiment i wanted to create a piece which was similar to Eugenia Loli’s. I liked the overall concept stylistic approach that she created and in order to create the same stylistic picture i used a layering technique. I kept my image very colorful just like Loli’s as it gives a child like look to the image which i quite like. I used the galaxy background as my first layer which i didn’t edit at all. My second layer was the man in the image which i edited out of the original image by using the cut out tool. This tool cut around the man in the picture so that i was able to drag this section out of the picture to layer one. Once the man was placed how i wanted it on layer one i then focused on layer three where i used the same technique to cut the blue hand out of an image. The blue hand originally came from the artist Steven Spangler who i had gained inspiration from in the past and i though that this image would be a good fit for the theme i was creating. My other aim for using the layering technique was to create a noticeable 3D technique which is successfully did. My final step of this montage what editing the brighness to higher than it originally was which has made the image stand out more.  I am overall very happy with how this turned out.

In my response to John Stezaker, i decided to create my own photo montage. First of all i used a picture off the internet of two people in offices which i then edited using Photoshop. When editing this image, i created a layer each for the fire explosions. I then cropped each original picture to the part of the fire i wanted and used the ‘move’ tool to move the layer to layer 1 ( office layer). Using the ‘brush’ tool, i then made the fire into head shapes. My reasoning for making their heads into fire explosions is due to that being the mind set that they have. Their heads act as the disaster which they are putting into the world.  This photo montage is used to express my negative viewpoints towards the government and the way that their minds cause our misery.  As seen their is a similarity between mine and Stezaker’s work as we both edited different images onto people faces.

Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person or group.

A persons identity is defined as the totality of one’s self-construal, in which how one construes oneself in the present expresses the continuity between how one construes oneself as one was in the past and how one construes oneself as one one aspires to be in the future. This allows for definitions of aspects of identity.

Gender identity forms an important part in identity, as it dictates to a significant degree on how one views oneself both as a person and in relation to other people, ideas and nature.                                                 There are many stigmas and stereotypes in Gender identities, these include how society expect men and women to behave on an account of their gender.                                                                                                The different stereotypes on women are; dressing in a typically feminine way, speaking clearly and politely, that they should be accommodating and nurturing.                                                                           Whereas men should be big, butch, strong, aggressive and very bold.

Cultural Identity is the identity of belonging to a group. It is part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation and locality. In this way cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity or upbringing. This can be shown by having people from the same race, ethnic or religious group in a photo together showing people from the same background together. You could even have people from different upbringings and ethnic backgrounds together, this would show how we can make our own identity and not stick to the stereotypical group society has made for us.

Social Identity is the portion of an individual’s self-concept derived from perceiving membership in a relevant social group. As originally formulated by social psychologists. It is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership. These proposed groups are Social class, family, friendship groups and sport teams etc…. which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. This can be shown by having a photo of a person stood out with a group of their group, this can be done be making their outline bold or by even singling them out by blurring out the frame from around them.

Loss/lack of identity can emerge if one is taken from a group or situation which one ha belong to for a while or if one has a strong bond with someone from that group. When we lose our identity we lose a sense of self, we are then likely to seek our sense or self-worth from someone else. In photography loss of self is easy to show by blurring out a persons face or blurring/ridding a person of a facial feature showing they have a lost a part of themselves, making them incomplete.

Laia Abril was born in 19986 in Barcelona, Spain. Abril (since 2010) has been working on various projects revolving around the themes of Loss and memory, Eating Disorders and Body Image. She made a short film about a young girl struggling with bulimia (Thinspiration) and The Epilogue, documenting the indirect victims of eating disorders, through the story of the Robinson family and the aftermath of the death of Cammy Robinson to bulimia. Another thing that Abril focuses on is the hidden realities related to sexuality and gender equality.

I feel positive about the issues that Abril talks about and displays using her photographs, as it is in a dead mans territory, this is because it is an ongoing issue that will affect most of our lives but no one will speak about it. Labeling these issues gives people the confidence to talk about and seek advice for these things. Whilst most of her photos seem in poor taste and can upset people they are a real issue that brings the most appalling negativity in peoples lives.   

These photos produced by Laia Abril show both issues of body image and eating disorders and sexuality.

She decided to focus her projects in telling intimate stories which raises uneasy realities related with femininity. In the photo above she is showing her work on her project on the young lesbian community in Brooklyn.