Photo-montage is two or more images to construct a college. This style of photography originated from Dadaism but is also very similar to surrealism. This style of art/photography has developed significantly since it first originated. It’s peak point was during the 20th century where multiple artists decided to experiment with creating abstract portraits. Photo-montage is still a big style of photography, as many artists are still creating this style of images. Nowadays, artists are presenting their opinions towards current political event and issues which are relevant to today, instead of issues which are no longer relevant.
Dadaism – This was the art movement during the first world war, to show the negative reaction towards horrors of the war. The aim of these images was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old..
Surrealism – Is aimed to ‘revolutionaries human experience’, by taking away all rations thoughts and visions towards visions of life. Which allowed the values of dreams to be presented. The word itself informs us that it is ‘beyond reality’, which means it take a less naturalistic path towards photography.
This style of photography allows artists viewpoints and thoughts to be expressed in a creative way. These images can be created through the use of photoshop or can be hand created. Below are a selection of my favourite examples of photomontage. I added a variety of styles, which follow Dadaism and surrealism. Personally, my initial reaction is that I prefer surrealism due to its more creative nature, however, I do believe dadaism examples are also just as good as they provide a strong message to viewers. This style of photography manipulation is mainly done on computers, on image editing software, however they still can be produced as a hand craft.
Jesse Draxler is an American artist, born in 1981 in Wisconsin, lives and works in Los Angeles, and has obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. His work primarily involves own photography and archived images which are then heavily manipulated and distorted to create eerie scenes which are always presented in gray scale for a sinister and vintage effect.
John Stezaker
John Stevaker is an English conceptual artist and was born in 1949, in Worcester, and graduated with a higher diploma in fine art in 1973 from Slade School of Art in London.
In the early 1970s, he was among the first wave of British conceptual artists to react against what was then the predominance of Pop art. His work is surreal in tone and is often made using collage and the appropriation of pre-existing images such as postcards, film stills, and publicity photographs.
Frida Kahlo de Rivera born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon; 6 July 1907 – 13 July ) was a Mexican artist who painted many portraits, self-portraits and works inspired by the nature and artefacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country’s popular culture, she employed a naïve folk art style to explore questions of identity, post colonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary Mexicayotl movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a surrealist or magical realist.
My Response
Within my response I wanted to incorporate her idea of portraying the taboo topics within society and beauty standards. People expect to look like models and Instagram posers so they go to extreme lengths to achieve this programmed look.
In my shoot I used a younger model due to the standards being passed down to even younger generations than before. I then incorporated Frida’ natural look he had. Through some research I found that during the Roman Empire Era, facial hair on women was a sign of intelligence and nobility. In a way, Frida reflected these traits whilst going against her modern day standards.
Final Images
Analysis
VISUAL
Within these images I wanted my main focus to be my model but not have a plain background. Within Kahlo’s paintings shes depicted infront of either shrubbery or a earthy coloured background. So, i put my model in front of a field to capture the nature as well as the model.
TECHNICAL
In order to create my blurred background, I firstly set my cameras depth of field so that it only focused on my model, then once i began processing the image my background wasn’t blurred enough so I used the Photoshop blurring tool so that only my model was in focus. As far as lighting goes, I only used natural light.
These are my outcomes and responses as well as edits to Annegret Soltau and Jakob Kolding.
Annegret Soltau
This shows the contact sheet of the photoshoot from my responses to Annegret Soltau. I started by wrapping the string around my head as well as another persons head and took pictures from various angles. Next I chose two images that I thought were best and printed them out to work into.
Contact Sheet of Photoshoot
Below shows two of my printed out responses with the string worked and sewn into them just as Annegret Soltau does.
My First Response with the String Worked intoMy Second Response with the String Worked into
Final Responses in Black and White
I have placed my final responses into black and white as this is how Annegret Soltau presents most of her work as well so I thought it would create a more accurate response to her.
Final ResponseFinal Response 2
Jakob Kolding
My Own Edit
This is a trial montage that I created with inspiration from Jakob Kolding, by drawing on and creating separate elements to create an image. This one which I have created I have done quite subtly compared to my other photo-montage in response to Annegret Soltau. For this photograph above I have taken small parts out of a woman’s magazine and stuck it in replacement of some of the things in the shop for example I changed the words on the crossword or the prices on the till, I also went back and drew on some of what he had in his shop himself on paper and placed this onto the photograph.
Annegret Soltau (Born 16 January 1946) is a German visual artist born in Luneburg, Germany. Her work marks a fundamental reference point in the art of the 1970’s and the 1980’s. Photo-montages of her own body and face sewn over or collaged with black thread are the most well known of the artist.
In ‘Selbst’ the artists ties up her face with tight threads of black silk, just like a cocoon, of which she makes a photographic record that is subsequently stitched by following a geometric pattern that resembles a sign. In her Video-Performances and Phototableaus she wanted to make an intimate processes like sexuality, pregnancy, birth, abortion, sickness and violence to become subjects of the arts. From 1977 to 1980 she dealt with her pregnancies of her two children. She asked herself the question: How can I combine creativity and motherhood without losing myself as my own person.
Performance art and photography became a liberation device for Soltau herself as well. After a series of self-portraits that show her in a cocoon made of black thread in various stages of pupation, she made her first sewn photo works in 1975. From that point onwards, her work was influenced by her understanding of human existence as a constant metamorphosis, and the threat to and expansion of the self throughout these changes. She finally became the center of her art: “I am using myself as a model because I can go the farthest with me.”
The tactile drawing with needle and thread, which has been her hallmark ever since, can be found in its probably most aesthetic version in the series of self portraits entitled Verspannungen from the Deutsche Bank Collection. “I liked the simplicity of those photo booth pictures, where you simply sit in the booth. It was important to me that the threads connect the various states like telephone wires.” The threads sewn across the photos follow the outlines of her face like cobwebs. Eyes, nose, and mouth become fixed points in an ornamental work of strapping and sewing that seems like an especially subtle for of self-mutilation. –Article Link
Annegret Soltau
Her imagery, which is both provocative and disturbing, often explores themes related to the self, metamorphosis and the female body. Alongside other artists such as Cindy Sherman and Suzy Lake, Soltau’s work is regarded as a key reference point for feminist art in the 70s and 80s.
In an interview about her work, Soltau says, “Above all I am interested in the image of women. What happens to women these days, how do they present themselves? Which compulsions (and liberties) exist for women today?”
Below is another photo-montage by Annegret Soltau. It is still a self portrait like in the above examples however this was produced a couple of years on and can be seen to have a different style. She has still sewn back into the photograph however this time it is to stitch other pictures onto the original, they have been ripped and placed to create an abstract looking portrait it has a different and almost more powerful effect for her to be stitching the parts together rather than having it seamless by gluing it. It also makes the picture more recognisable to her as it has become one of her signifying techniques.
Self Portrait | Annegret Soltau
Other Artist to look at during experimentation:
Jakob Kolding
‘In terms of subject, the work has gone from a relatively specific interest in modernist utopias and suburban space.’
The idea of landscape plays a big part in Berlin-Based Jakob Kolding’s gritty pieces. He likes the fact that every element used references something outside of the work, making for a multilayered and complex experience. He is acutely aware that context always matters and enjoys playing around with this in ‘simple yet meaningful ways’. Collage is always at the heart of his creative process and he admits that ‘even when the work doesn’t look like a collage, that is basically still how I think about it. I like how in the process you can build up your own vocabulary, something very personal by made only out of found images. Nothing comes from nothing.’ – Cuts & Paste (Caroline Roberts and Richard G. Brereton)
Jakob Kolding | Memories of the FututreJakod Kolding | Round up
For my photo-montage I decided to link thematically to John Heartfield. While he had strong anti-Nazi messages in his works, I chose to link to my polish heritage and explore the communist era of Poland. I decided I wanted to show the negative impact that socialism had on Poland, it’s economy and it’s people. For the style of editing I used, I decided to make a piece similar to those by Martha Rosler. I used a multiply layer of a piece of crinkled paper as well as various filter in order to age the background and give it the appearance of a communist propaganda poster.
This exhibition in Saint Helier shows how Clara Rae the Australian artist that uses photography to explore ideas of performance and gesture to interrogate and subvert dominant modes of representation, responds to the older photographer Claude Cahun a Jewish-French photographer
This self portrait of Rae shows how she is in a very uncomfortable position, lying on a large stone with her back and head falling behind and her hips on the edge of the stone. this portrait makes the watcher questioning her position and the meaning of it.
This portrait shows how Rae is clinging her self between holes in what seems to be a building, she uses her body to show weird but unique positions that are very questionable.
Cahun uses different faces in a every portrait, in this photo she is representing a doll wearing a shirt saying “i’m still in training don’t kiss me” makes the viewer question what exactly does she mean.
Clare specifically came to jersey to respond to Claude’s questionable work, both Clare and Claude use black and white self portraits in their work. Claude has acquired cult status among artists dealing with issues of gender, identity and self-representation, she is very known for her radical self-portraits she produced, in collaboration with her female partner Marcel Moore.
The exhibition reflects a dialogue between two performative photographic practices created some 70 years apart. in two separate yet open rooms.
It is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that a final image may appear as a seamless photographic print. Photo-montage is often used as a means of expressing political dissent.It was first used as a technique by the dadaists in 1915 in their protests against the First World War. It was later adopted by the surrealists who exploited the possibilities photo-montage offered by using free association to bring together widely disparate images, to reflect the workings of the unconscious mind. In 1923 the Russian constructionist Aleksander Rodchenko began experimenting with photo-montage as a way of creating striking socially engaged imagery concerned with the placement and movement of objects in space.Other key exponents of the medium are ,John Heartfield the German artist who reconstructed images from the media to protest against Germany’s Fascist regime and Peter Kennard; whose photo-montages explored issues such as economic inequality, police brutality and the nuclear arms race between the 1970s and the 1990s.
John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld) was a German photographer best know for his work in photo-montage. Much of his most famous works were anti fascist/Nazi statements. He used the political nature of his photography as a form of visual art to use as a “political weapon”. John was a prominent figure in the style of photography known as dadaism.
Some of his photo-montage featured various pieces of artwork in conjunction with various photographs. the majority of his photography is borrowed however combines the photos/artwork into a powerful political statement.
“The cross was not yet heavy enough”
This piece uses explicit religious imagery to convey the Nazi’s as an enemy of Christ.
Not much can be said for the technical aspects of John’s photography since much of the photographs used are borrowed however the photos are put together simply by cutting and pasting while occasionally painting/drawing directly onto the frames.
“Whoever Reads Bourgeois Newspapers Becomes Blind and Deaf: Away with These Stultifying Bandages!”
This piece is much different to the rest of John’s work as it doesn’t utilize traditional photo-montage and instead is a more traditional photo as this was a photo-shoot that was setup primarily for this shot and isn’t a combination of images. The photo is framed like many portraits taken of Nazi officials however it features a German newspaper wrapped around his head suggesting that the German people are so absorbed by the news that they are a slave to the media, this is also implied by the attire of the subject which suggests that they are being incarcerated. The photo is essentially telling the viewer that the Bourgeois news was heavily biased and will leave the reader with a closed mind.
2 portraits of Erwin Rommel of similar composition to the piece by John
WHO – this is a recreation of Arnis Balčus’ work, using my own model in order to take form of the little boy
WHAT – the main objective of this photo shoot is to recreate and understand how Balčus creates his work and the symbolism which he chooses to include and adapting the environment and resources I have in order to recreate the photo in a similar way.
WHEN – the image was taken during mid day as I figured this would be a similar time of day judging by the original image and the direct sunlight in it
WHERE -the image was taken in an old communal garage space which resembles the location a lot in the image I am trying to recreate.
WHY – to understand the most suitable ways in which to photograph people, organize photo-shoots and comprehend the symbolism which has been used by the original artist
HOW – I used my regular DSLR camera for this photo shoot, all natural lighting.
FINAL IMAGE –
IMAGE I WAS RECREATINGRECREATED IMAGE
VISUAL ANALYSIS OF IMAGES –
VISUAL –
The image overall has a very gloomy and depressing mood around it. The depiction of a small child (recreated by a model which is also quite child like), looking at the empty beer bottle is synonymous with the prevailing alcohol abuse problem in Eastern Europe. The environment, which is worn and old, also suggests poverty and shortage of necessities for the child, almost using the beer bottles as toys. The child portrays sadness and loneliness. To put a modern twist on my own imagery, the glass bottle has been replaced with a speaker, as this is representative of the technology reliant youth of today. The weathered and old garages in the back of the image nicely contrast the main subject in the foreground by disturbing the repeating pattern. In order to have some similarities with the original image, the model is wearing a bright blue jacket, which immediately draws in the viewers eye to the center of the image. Both images can be split up with the rule of thirds, where the subject is situated in the middle of the image. The upwards facing power play between the camera and the model makes her seem a lot taller than reality, giving some power to the subject. The neutral expression of the model also creates a theme of confusion and mystery in the image as the viewer is not clear on what the subject is feeling. The direction in which the subject is looking at, leads also the viewers eyes down to the ground where the speaker is (situated in the bottom left third of the image). The overall color scheme of the image is dull and neutral, being mostly made up of subtle blues and grays.
TECHNICAL –
This photo was taken during late morning, on a cloudy overcast day. I especially chose this day due to the fact that this is what resembled most in the photo I was trying to recreate. I set the white balance of my camera to the “cloudy” setting in order to achieve well balanced images. As it was a cloudy, yet still bright day, I turned down the ISO of my camera down to 200 to avoid the image being overexposed. As this was a very staged image, and the subject was standing still, I chose to use a tripod to make sure the image is crisp without any motion blur, due to this I kept my aperture mid way at 1/125 as I wasn’t concerned with the camera moving. I had a very clear idea of the positioning of the model and the prop therefore I first angled my camera and refereed to the original image for guidance. After a couple of shots, I was confident in the final image therefore contact sheets for this photo shoot weren’t necessary.
CONCEPTUAL –
The main objective of this photo shoot was to make sure that what I was recreating conveyed similar visual elements as the original image, using a model of a small stature and an environment which is very similar as the original. Of course as I am not the original photographer, not in the same environment, I have had to adapt and make do with the resources I have resulting in the differences seen in the image. I wanted to convey a different social issue which affects us here in Jersey, relating to our environment and society, with the presence of the speaker on the ground. Representing how technology dependent the youth is, looking to it for guidance, happiness and companionship. This effecting social skills and the way in which children grow up and interact with one another.
CONTEXTUAL –
At the end of the 1980s all the countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union enjoyed relatively high levels of human development and social welfare. Extensive social investments during the period of communist rule meant that literacy was almost universal, and well above other countries with comparable levels of per capita income, and life expectancy averaged 68 years. Unemployment was unheard of and – at least officially –poverty did not exist. Few commentators could have foreseen that the process of transition towards market economies and democratic governments would have been so tumultuous and accompanied by such high costs in terms of individual well-being, particularly among the countries of the new Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The collapse of economic output in many of these countries following independence, along with hyperinflation that wiped out individual savings, resulted in a dramatic drop in living standards for the majority of people and the emergence of poverty as a major issue within the region. Increasing poverty leading people to alcoholism and the use of it in daily life.
Nearly all the top 15 biggest drinking nations are in Central or Eastern Europe. Poverty and the harsh climate, particularly in Russia, play a part, as does the tradition of drinking. “Where it’s extremely cold it’s not uncommon for people to drink all day long,” said Val Smith, president of International Wine and Spirits, which provided the data on per-capita alcohol consumption.
And particularly in agrarian regions; farmers often produce their own home brews from anything ranging from potatoes to sugar beets, making alcohol very accessible and very cheap, said Smith. This also makes per capita consumption hard to measure, with official figures sometimes well below actual consumption rates.
