Photomontage first became popular in 1915 when people started protesting against the First World War.
Years later, photomontages became a form of propaganda allowing world leaders to sway the general public’s mind. For example Adolf Hitler used montages to brainwash the Germans into thinking Concentration camps were nice places.
Examples of Photomontage
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Martha Rosler
Soviet Propaganda
Jerry Uelsmann
Image Analysis
Jerry Uelsmann
The image is in black and white which contrasts my interpretation of this image. I believe that it shows that nature can sometimes be cruel, however humans can care for the things that have been neglected by its own family.
Family isn’t necessarily blood, it’s whoever cares and love you like you’re their own
“Ole Christiansen is known for his covers of Euroman and record covers of bands such as Sort Sol, TV2, Thomas Helmig and many others. His visual signature is unique and differs by a very graphic look.”- His profile from Profil : Ole Christiansen
Main inspiration
Setup
We had a blue gel on the key light so that the subject had a blue hue and a red gel over the back light so there was a red circle in the background which some could interpret as a halo.
The two colours merged together on the screen meaning there were no harsh lines and they made purple which allowed the colours to smoothly gradate.
Contact sheet
Best Images
These are my most successful images because they aren’t blurry and have a balanced contrast of light and shadow.
The first image I think, is my most successful image. It is also the photo that is most similar to Christiansen’s image that is displayed earlier on in the blog post.
The model is looking away from the camera into the distance and the light is focused on the center of his face creating a shadow on the left side of his face and neck.
Experimenting with Photoshop
I wanted to layer two of my images so I went into Photoshop and used the magic eraser tool to get rid of the background of the image. Then I zoomed in so that the background was completely erased and only the models body was visible.
I used ctrl T and dragged the image onto the other and went through the options and the final blending option I chose was Luminosity with opacity at 72% and fill at 73%.
I’m very pleased with how the image turned out and how the two images blend in together. The two image contrast each other; the background image is of the model with a straight face, and the second image layered on top of that is of the model more relaxed with him leaning forward and smiling.
This work is inspired by Henry Mullins, a photographer from Jersey who photographed nearly 9000 people between 21 years.(1852-1873)
His portrait were printed on a carte de visite as a small albumen print, (the first commercial photographic print produced using egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper) which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card.
Set Up of the studio
Contact sheet
Diamond Cameo
I went into Photoshop and used the elliptical marquee tool which cropped my images into ovals which meant all I needed to do was drag each image and put them into a diamond formation.
I put one of the images in black and white so that it would look like Mullins’ pictures as there was no colour photography during that time.
Alfred Krupp was a German industrialist and a Nazi sympathiser. He made ammunition and trains for the Nazis during world war two, and his workers were prisoners from concentration camps and prisoner of war camps. Arnold Newman took this image and it could be seen that he took his image to show the world what kind of man he is. Arnold was Jewish so it could be seen as payback on how he treated his culture.
The man is wearing a suit which allows the viewer to believe that he’s a businessman.It looks as though he is wearing an expensive gold watch on his wrist, which could show that he is wealthy and important to his surroundings. The fact that Newman took this image in his place of work creates a sense of hatred towards him as this is where many people were tortured to work long hours for very little pay with practically no breaks.
Newman has taken the image face on and that could be seen as showing Krupp that they are both equal, there is no inferior race or person. Krupp has his hands interlocked to show authority however it also makes him look aggressive and intimidating to others.
The damage on the columns behind Krupp can show that he cares very little for his factory and mainly focused on the money that was coming into his pocket.
The dark edges of the image allow the viewer to focus on Alfred, the lack of light shows that he could be seen as evil and someone you wouldn’t want to be near. However the gap in the ceiling could represent a halo which contradicts him as a person and the mood of the image. It could however represent that he is an angel of death as he worked along side Hitler, who was responsible for millions of people’s deaths, the fact he fueled that also makes him a killer.
The dark colours in the image add to the fact that he wasn’t a nice person and that he shouldn’t be praised or applauded for his work. It also shows the viewer that this image shouldn’t be seen as a nice image, instead it could be seen as justice for all who were tortured by the Nazis.
Ray Metzker quietly made extraordinary and influential photographs over the course of a five decade career. Today, he is recognized as one of the great masters of American photography.
September 10, 1931-October 9, 2014
Image Analysis
Ray Metzker (title unknown)
Metzker used the car window as a mirror in this image; that could have confused the viewer because they may initially see the image that is reflected on the car window, but not necessarily the car itself.
Plan
Shoot one
For the first shoot I was inspired by the image below. Instead of focusing on the reflection, I tried to focus on the flowers themselves so I just put them in the water and left them to float and I just took the pictures as they bobbed around.
For a couple of the images, i had my hand underneath them. I did this because in many of Metzker’s images, there are a lot of people and/or shadows of people which some could interpret that there’s no part of this world that hasn’t been disturbed or effected by the human race.
Contact sheets
Favourite Images
Edits
Although Metzker’s work is mainly in black and white, I wanted to show the difference by making one of the images have the blue hue rather than fully black and white and one with all colour.
Favourite Image
This is my favourite image because it’s blurred, however the viewer can still tell what the image is. In the image, the flowers have darker details which are bolder and more apparent in the centre of the hand, this is because this is what my camera focused on while I took it.
This is my favourite image because I like the fact that, under the harsh light, the folds of the paper become more prominent and edges become crisp because the black background contrasting it.
The paper aeroplane also looks like it begins to blend into the background as the flash only hits the back of the plane. The tip of the paper aeroplane is also barely noticeable because practically no light reached it.
Today we learnt how to create a mirrored/kaleidoscope effect on photoshop. The image above is my final outcome. I chose this image by Ralph Eugene Meatyard because the simplistic shapes that were created by the tree’s twigs allowed the image to look slightly geometric and more complex than original image was.
I believe that the my final works well because of the image being black and white. This gave it an eerie effect which works with the original image which was sparse and and empty but now the four images have been reflected it make a whole other shape, allowing the viewer’s imagination to wander trying to figure out what the shape looks most like.
Alfred Stieglitz was an american photographer who’s career lasted for fifty years. He was born in 1864 and died in 1946.
Ernst Haas was an Austrian photographer who had a 40 year career .He was born in 1921 and died in 1986.
Both images are similar because they both have repeated shapes in them even though they are two totally different things. The water, in Haas’s image, has another picture reflected. However the ripples in the water has caused the reflection to look distorted allowing the viewer to try and interpret where and when the image was taken. In Stieglitz’s image, the clouds are wispy and thin at the top of the image allowing us to see columns in the sky. However, as the viewer looks down the image, the clouds seem to merge together allowing the viewer to try and see if the bulk of clouds makes a certain pattern or ‘image’ in the sky.
Although the images have similar patterns, the colours in the images are nothing alike. In Haas’s image, the majority of the colours are warm tones like oranges and reds. This allows the viewer to guess that the images are either taken during sunset as the sky turns red/ orange. Or the image could have been taken near an orange/ red building.
The source of the water is also not clear, it could be from a river, pond, lake or a puddle. The only thing the viewer notices is that there has been something in the water which has disturbed the still water and causing all the ripples.
In Stieglitz’s image the colours are very cool toned which gives the image a calm mood which allows the viewer to understand the message of the image without getting distracted by all the contrasts of colours in the image.
