A photomontage is a collage constructed from many different photographs to form one new image. The technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century. (from world war 1 – world war 2).

The inspiration for my photo montage I got is from Joachim Schmid. He cuts two images in half to form one. This makes the image more abstract and gives you more to look at. He uses a variety of different images put together such as opposite genders- half female and half male, a young child in contrast to a grown up or just simply the same person but from a different angle.

my photomontage images edited on photoshop-

Overall, I really like how my photo-montage images turned out as I think they turned out more interesting than the original photos. I like when photography is presented in an abstract form, personally I think it gives more character and meaning to the photos. For example I got inspired by Joachim Schmid because I think combining two images into one is more interesting than having just one plain portrait image. In this case by using two images I think it can show how every person has two sides of them or two faces in a way, which can be seen by using twos sides of an individuals face and combining them. I cropped one of my two images and just simply dragged it on top of the previous layer and later on cropped it , in order to just focus mainly on the face like my chosen photographer.

Raoul Hausmann was an Austrian artist and writer. He experimented with photographic collages. Around 1923, Raoul would create montages of cut outs of magazines locally and stick them together. He believed war at the time to be a necessary cleansing of a calcified society. He would find portrait of soldiers, onto which he had glued photographic portrait heads of his son five times. Some would say he’s mentally unstable to the fact that he agreed with war. His feelings towards war and that time or era seemed to be all expressed into his art pieces.

Mood Board –

Photo Analysis –

This image was probably anonymous figures cut from a magazine. Raoul’s work seemed to have a meaning behind why exactly he made this photomontages. As he believed war was a cleansing of a calcified society, using soldiers bodies from a poster or magazine and sticking others heads to it might suggest that he feels as if we should fight for ourselves, fight for rights. The fragment of a German banknote behind the neck of the anonymous figure suggests that he is controlled by capitalist forces. This is because German were invading berlin , where Raoul is from, and taking over the country. The words in the background are part of a poem poster made by Hausmann to be pasted on the walls of Berlin. As well as montages made he was a poet who sees poems to be an art that can link into his montage work. This is another way for Raoul to express his impressions of the time of the World War 1. This piece of art in particular was made with different materials that were assembled together.

A photo-montage is a collage constructed from photographs. This photographs can be as abstract as can be from each other. Common photo montage creations are portraits such as mixing different parts of models faces with others. Montage photography can be created on photo shop and by hand. Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2). 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. This is where photo montage was open to possibilities for expressing the feelings of war soldiers and working communities.

Ideas Of Photo-Montage –

Mood Board –

Plan-

I will be photographing my friend in the studio using a soft box light as a main light to project good lighting on my models face. With this light i can also change the level of warmth and cold. This means i can capture more color in the facial feature and more dynamic and contrasting lines of shadow in the face. More color in the face relates to Satoshi’s work as her work is seen with peoples faces to be colorful and bright. I used between a white and black backdrop to contrast the face between the two to capture different perspectives of the face. My camera settings were as such; exposure – 1/100 ISO – 400 and 200 (depending on the level of the soft box light) and i used a 50mm lens.

Contact sheet –

Best Images –

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These images relate to Satoshi Fujiwara’s work as these ‘portrait’ photographs have a similar appearances towards them. For example, the dynamic shot from the bottom of the face upwards. Cutting out the rest of the image and only capturing some or even all facial features. This is what makes the image seen close up.

Evaluation-

This photo-shoot was a quick and easy shoot to do within 30 minutes or so. Using studio lighting made this an easy shoot for the focus of the Lens to be in focus on the face when really close up. Satoshi’s work seems to be using bright flash light and keeping the face bright with maybe just natural light such as a sunny day. If I was to do this shoot again i would choose to do a range of different people with using different scenery and lighting. I might get my model to not pose as much and make the photos captured to be more natural and content.

Studio portraiture is an incredibly versatile genre of photography images can be anything from bright, punchy, high-key images full of light and energy, to dark, intense images that draw the viewer to the subjects eyes. Studio photographers take pictures of individuals or groups of people. They may use set pieces, backdrops, lighting equipment and filters to create the appropriate effect for the photographs. To work as a studio photographer, you would need to have a sense of light and shadow, as well as patience and a keen eye. Creativity and a passion for art also are beneficial traits for aspiring photographers.

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One point lighting involves just one light and is illustrated as the key light. The purpose of the key light is to highlight the form and dimension of the subject. The angled positioning of they key light produces shadows from the subject which is nullified by the light. A main purpose isn’t to eliminate the shadows completely from the frame but to ensure a soft transition of light from one side of the face to another. The light intensity can be softened by moving the light further away from the face, or closer for a harsher light as it bounces of the face.

my photo shoot

Final Images – one point lighting

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In a few of my final images, I used red, pink and orange transparent objects in front of the light to reduce the high intensity and colour temperature for a warmer lighting condition. My key light was placed on the right to bounce of the face and was placed further back to produce a softer image. In some of my photographs, where the light cant reach parts of the face, the shadow is so deep it creates a sharp contrasted line between the face and the background. However, in others, the shadows aren’t so harsh and features of the face can break through the cloud of shadow. What I like about one point lighting is how the key light highlights high-points of the face, creating different shades of red, pink or orange. In my black and white images, the one point lighting creates a variety of shadows and highlights. One light creates strong contrasts and highlights at different parts of the image and a range of grey scale tones.

Passports are very basic images that’s sole purpose is a means of identification. In the UK the photos are very simple, a clear head shot with a white background however, in a beauty obsessed country like south korea, passport photos are so heavily edited they no longer look anything like the passport owner.

I am going to create two different pieces, one based one the utilitarian style British passports and another heavily Photoshop-ed to fit strange and unrealistic beauty standards.

SHOOT PLAN

WHEN	WHERE	WHO	NOTES
2:30 03/02/21	Photography classroom	Tiago	Photography studio not available so need to create white backdrop with A3 paper

CONTACT SHEET

A lot of these photos need parts of the background cropped out. This is because the photography studio was not available so I had to create my own white backdrop using white A3 card however the card was not big enough and some of the wall can be seen. Some of the photos are not deadpan or central, with my models head often tilted to the side. These photos will not be used for my final piece.

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I removed a few more of my selected photos as his hair wasn’t fully pictured. These photo are very central and have a consistent deadpan expression which makes them look like passport photos. For my British passport version all i am going to do is slightly crop the photos.

To create the Korean version I used spot healing tool on Photoshop to remove blemishes and then lightened the images to emulate Korean passports I have seen. I would’ve liked to make more extreme changes to my models facial features however I was limited by my lack of photoshop skills.

To display I copied the same image four times and layed them out in the same format you would get when you had your passport photos taken as I think that it shows the contrast best between the two cultures while also gives a sense of verisimilitude.

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