Photomontage 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 photomontage offered by using free association to bring together widely disparate images, to reflect the workings of the unconscious mind.

In 1923 the Russian constructivist Aleksander Rodchenko began experimenting with photomontage 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 photomontages explored issues such as economic inequality, police brutality and the nuclear arms race between the 1970s and the 1990s.

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Here I used a separate black and white image to show how the old fashion actor is standing in the present time

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Photomontage

Photomontage is the combination of two or more photographs, or pieces of them, to form a single image. The technique came to prominence as a Dadaist form of political protest during the First World War and was later adopted by Surrealist and Pop artists. Photomontage is often used as a means of expressing political ideas and upset. 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 photomontage offered by using widely disparate images, to reflect the workings of the unconscious mind.

In 1923 the Russian constructivist Aleksander Rodchenko began experimenting with photomontage as a way of creating striking socially engaged imagery concerned with the placement and movement of objects in space. Other key artists are John Heartfield, the German artist who reconstructed images from the media to protest against Germany’s Fascist regime and Peter Kennard, whose photomontages explored issues such as economic inequality, police brutality and the nuclear arms race between the 1970s and the 1990s.

John Stezaker

John Stezaker is a contemporary British Conceptual artist best known for his collages of found images taken from postcards, film stills, and commercial photographs. Stezaker’s work resembles early-serrealist and Dada collages made by artists like Kurt Schwitters and Hannah Hoch. In his collage series “Marriage”, juxtaposed portraits of classic films stars create newly formed but disjointed characters.

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After editing and printing my images from my still life and Hamptonne shoots, I created handmade experiments as well as some on photoshop.

Handmade Experiments

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Photoshop Experiments

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GIFS

To make my gifs, I made a layer for each image, and made frames for each layer. I adjusted the delay for each image and changed the window to forever, then saved the GIF for web.

I then made another, using the same method.

Best Images

After selecting my best images, I edited them in Lightroom classic.

My vanitas images

My images are influenced by the photographer Paulette Tavormina. Paulette Tavormina is a an american still life photographer who lives and works in the city of New York. She spends lots of her time in the city’s rich markets, searching for the beautiful florals that add delicate character to her still life photographs. Paulette is heavily inspired by 17th century Still life painters: Giovanna Garzoni, Francisco de Zurbaran, and Adriaen Coorte. She particularly takes inspiration from Zurbaran’s use of mysterious and dramatic light, Coorte’s unique placement of objects, and Garzoni’s clever compositions and rich colour palette.

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I categorised my images using the star system – 1 star for no, 5 stars for yes and 3 stars for maybe.

Basic Edits

Further Experimentation

I decided to place a stained church glass design in the eye socket of the skull to represent the link between death and the church.

For this image i wanted to include an image from my environmental photography shoot, i decided to make a collage of different images from different object shoots and merge them together into this Vantas style still life montage.

An environmental portrait is taken of someone who is in their natural environments such as their workplace or home. It could also be in an environment that they are associated with like a sport or another hobby. A good environmental portrait tells the story of the person and the surroundings will show their personality through the photo.

Mood-Board

Arnold Newman

Newman was an American photographer who was well known for his ‘environmental portraits’ of artists and politicians. He is often credited for being the photographer who articulated and consistently used the genre of environmental portraiture. Arnold Newman normally captured his subjects in their most familiar surroundings with representative visual elements showing their professions and personalities.

“I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background,” Newman told American Photo magazine in an interview. “The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.”

“There are many things that are very false about photography when it is accepted without question,” he once explained. “You must recognize and interpret it as you would any other art form, and then maybe it is a little more than real.”

One of the things I like about Arnold Newman’s work was that he was able to capture peoples personalities in his photos even without them being in colour. I also like that his work is minimalistic with only photographing the key objects which show who the person is. For example, Agnes de Mille, who was a dancer and choreographer in the 40s and 50s, Newman photographed her in one of the dance studios which she might have taught at and Igor Stravinsky who was a composer, Newman photographed him next to his grand piano and a plain white background so that the harsh black can stand out against it.

Newman was best known for his black and white portraits but he often used colour, one of his most signature images in black and white was of Igor Stravinsky who was a composer in New York sat next to a grand piano.

Some of Newman’s well-known subjects include Max Ernst, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marilyn Monroe, Alfried Krupp, Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. Newman published many of his portraits in magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Time, Look, and Life.

Arnold Newman photographed a lot of celebrities from different industries such as Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Francis Bacon and David Hockney. Some of the people he got to photograph only allowed very few artists to do so, for example, Henri Cartier-Bresson was another photographer known for being camera shy.

Plan

1st Photoshoot (Outside)- I will ask a family friend who is a dog walker, I will try and get a photo with both her and some of the dogs that she works with.

2nd Photoshoot (Inside)- I am going to a family friends bar and will try and get so photos of them standing behind the bar and getting portraits of the waist up.

3rd Photoshoot – Because I wasn’t able to photograph two or more people I have chosen to photograph one of the workers at a food truck down by the harbour. I would like to get photos of them behind the counter, having them in front of their drinks or some food.

Homework

Contact Sheets:

These are the contact sheets from my three different photoshoots, in these, I have got different lighting, shading and angles of the different subjects. I have chosen to do a dog walker, pub owner and food truck worker. These show a range of different occupations and working environments which has made me have to adapt to different scenarios when taking pictures.

1st Photoshoot

For my first photo shoot, I chose to do Vanessa Heath who is a dog walker, I have photographed her on a rock on St Clements because it is the main place she walks the dogs. I have tried to have the dogs sitting around her in order to make her the main object of the image. In most of the photos, only one or two dogs were looking towards the camera and it was hard to try and keep them sitting down but I think it gives a better representation of her job and gives the photo a more fun and relaxed environment. I had photographed Vanessa in the morning around 11 o’clock, but it was a cloudy day so the images came out darker and duller.

Editing:

I have edited my photos in Adobe Lightroom, I have increased the exposure and contrast I’m most of my photos so that Vanessa and the dogs can be seen more clearly, it also helped that background look less dull and gloomy.

In the top photo, I have only increased the exposure and contrast slightly, for this photo I wanted the blacks of the rocks to be harsh and the grey/white sky to be brighter, I decreased the highlights and increased whites to get this effect.

In this edit, I increased the exposure and decreased the contrast, as well as tweaking the highlights and temperature. This brightened the image and corrected the slight underexposure in the image.

Final Images:

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I have chosen these as my final photos because I feel these each have qualities that show Vanessa working environment. Each of these photos also has the best compositions as Vanessa is sitting in or near the middle which allows the focus to be mainly on her and the dogs. The top left photo is not as saturated and is more washed out than the others which it didn’t find as aesthetic. The bottom photo is my favourite out of the four because I think is the most vibrant and saturated which I like, it also represents the fun environment that you can see in the photo. I also really like how the blues and purples in Vanessa clothes stand out against the grey rocks and the beige sand. Even though the dogs are not looking at the camera and running around it gives the photo life and excitement but also shows the busy atmosphere that comes with being a dog walker.

2nd Photoshoot

For my second photoshoot, I decide to do one of my Dads friends, Noel Flood, he is the owner of the troubadour in St Helier. I have photographed Noel behind the bar so that you can see all the bottles and the beer pumps which are all key parts of his job. I like how in the coloured photos that the bottles behind Noel are bright and eye-catching even though they are in the background.

Editing:

Most of my photos were very dark due to the lighting in the bar so in those photos I have increased exposure and decreased the contrast so that Noel can be seen more clearly. I have also slightly increased the saturation so that the colours are bolder and stand out against that darker green on the shelves.

In the photo above I have had to adjust the texture and clarity because it had come out grainy after moving around the photo. I have also slightly increased the tint which is also helping the colours to become brighter.

In this edit, I have turned it black and white as well as increased exposure, whites and shadows. I have also decreased the highlights so that some parts of the photo comes out darker.

Final Images:

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I have chosen these as my final images because each of them have Noel standing in the middle making him the main focal point. Also in all the photos except the top left and bottom right, Noel is looking into the camera which is also helping him be the main focus. Even though in the two other photos Noel isn’t looking at the camera they are still captivating, it also makes the photo stand out more because they are slightly different to the other photos I have taken. I have turned the two of the bottom black and white, with the bottom right being of my favourites, I really like the harsher and darker blacks in it and how the brighter whites contrast with them. In the coloured photos the I like the dim lighting because it is not as harsh and gives off a glowy look around the bar.

3rd Photoshoot

For my third photoshoot, I chose to do the owner of Quayside cafe down by the harbour. I have taken two sets of photos one with the lady standing behind the screen and one with the camera inside the kiosk so that there is no screen blocking the lady’s face. I like how the screens give off a neon effect due to the blue tint and the ‘pizza’ sign just above the lady. I also like the photos without the screen because you can get a better view inside the kiosk and shows a bigger picture of the owners everyday working environment.

Editing:

One of the main issues with this shoot was caused by covid, most places now have screens protecting both the customer and the worker. In the photos with the screen, it was difficult to see that lady’s face due to the lighting and reflection so in most of them I have decreased exposure and increased contrast to make it clearer.

In the top photo, I have also decreased highlights and increased whites, this editing has given the final edit a neon look. I really like how it brings more colour to the photo as well as makes the owners face easier to see.

In the photo above I have changed the photo to black and white, I have increased the contrast slightly to make the photo darker, I have also decreased the highlights, shadows and blacks. I wanted this edit of black and white to be darker and have the blacks stand out more than the lighter shades.

Final Images:

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I have selected these as my final images because they show the owner and her day to day working environment clearly. They also have the lady standing in the middle which is making her the main focal point. In the coloured photos, I like that they all have a blue tint which is interesting to look at and is eye-catching. I also like how two of the screen photos has a yellow tint to the background which contrast nicely with the blue in the foreground. In the two black and white photos you have a better view of the inside of the kiosk and there is no reflection which was interfering with the view of the lady. I think that the landscape photo is better because it has less black space at the bottom of the photo and gives a wider look at the environment. Another thing that I like about the black and white photos is how the harsher and more prominent black of the apron sits nicely on top of the grey hoodie.

Introduction

Below I have placed some of my favourite examples of different experimentation methods, I like the contrast of layering coloured images on top of monochromatic ones as it creates depth and adds vibrancy to the images. Furthermore, the use of 2 different images that are sliced together creates a brand new cohesive image as 2 images are visible despite the image not being formed as one.

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John Stezaker

Stezaker attended the Slade School of Art in London in his early teens, he graduated with a Higher Diploma in Fine Art in 1973. 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. Solo exhibitions for Stezaker were rare for sometime, however, in the mid-2000s, his work was rediscovered by the art market; he is now collected by several international collectors and museums.

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. Art historian Julian Stallabrass said, “The contrast at the heart of these works [by Stezaker] is not between represented and real, but between the unknowing primitives of popular culture, and the conscious, ironic artist and viewer of post-modern images.

This image below is named Third person by Stezaker and I have included this for inspiration as I like how it gives us at glimpse at two peoples lives, as the piece is composed of two very different people, one being the man smoking in the background/ surroundings and the other being the upper class lady, maybe even royalty. sitting in a palace. the contrast between smoking, lower class act vs maybe even the queen in the middle highlights the contrast between lifestyle. I can infer that the contrast between the blues in the gentleman and the red in the lady are also there to show this.

His work

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Handmade Experiments

Below I have demonstrated some of my own experimentations using still life images, Hamptonne portraits and images of buildings. These show how the examples of experimentations posted onto the blog can be recreated using my won images and how some turned out to be more successful than others.

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Photoshop work

Advantages of photoshop: It allows you to create and edit images for both print and web. Photoshop itself gives the user complete control over all kinds of image manipulation, editing and special effects and can be used for exact calibration of images for all output methods.

Combining still life images and Hamptonne images I have created multiple experimentations in Photoshop, I used inspiration from the Haulieu blog and came up with the idea for the image with the barn as a frame by myself. Furthermore, I got to learn the basics of photoshop and how to layer images to create new pieces of work.

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I like how the images with the Hamptonne barn interior as a boarder came together as it creates a contrast between the barn which is hundreds of years old and the new still life images which are modern as they were taken recently. The shadows in the second image are unintentionally diagonal and match up well, I also positioned the two circular objects (Jersey old yogurt pot and white vase) so that the shaped lined up well, creating an effective final product. The other still life experimentation (bottom left) was an attempt to create the half and half affect, but in my opinion this isn’t my strongest piece as the objects don’t really line up and the colours don’t compliment each other.

PROCESS

We went into the studio and took some photographs of objects provided by school and the Jersey Heritage. Three different stations were set up, one camera positioned at a birds eye level, one with a white background and another with a pink and yellow background to create a horizon type effect. We could alter all the settings, but mostly the IOS and stutter speed, when the shutter speed is increased, images become darker as there is less time for light to enter the camera when taking a photograph.

IMAGES

I think this image is somewhat effective as it’s unintentionally off centre but I ended up liking this image as the different objects create texture. The old metal of the box versus the shiny metal on the tin can, and against the cardboard box.

EDITING

Below I have added in a contact to show how the images are displayed in Lightroom and how this organisation helps me editing with blog posts easier and images easier to find and therefore to export. In addition, I like this layout as the thumbnails of the images can be increased or decreased to make the larger and more visible, this means that I can locate my final images easily and this aids with creating galleries in blog posts.

Here I have selected some of my best images from the still life photoshoot to edit, and I have chosen the images with the best shadows, meaning they have more depth and contrast than some other images. Furthermore, these photos are the ones that turned out the most successful without editing- meaning the objects are placed in the centre (unless its otherwise intentional), the lighting is bright and the camera is focused. During this photoshoot, in groups we took turns adjusting the lighting, ISO and shutter speed along with other functions.

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Below I have selected 4 of my final edited images as i think these are the most aesthetic and the edited has helped adapt these images the most. In addition, I think that the image of the guitar is one of my best as the the bright orange next the stale grey creates contrast in colours and tones along with the hardwood violin against the metal. I also like how the clear glass milk bottle against the completely opaque objects creates a distinction between the different objects, meaning the solid objects are more present in my final image. These images illustrate how we can take photos but also make them, as the editing can make the images more eye catching, or the original photograph can already be of a good quality.

FINAL EDITED IMAGES

I have selected and edited these 6 images as my final ones as in my opinion they have the best compositions , and the use of three different objects in a couple of these images demonstrates how an odd number of objects is effective when taking still life images. Furthermore, I like the contrasting colours in some of these images as the oranges and green make the images come to life, making them more eye-catching. I have one image monochromatic to show that images with originally limited colours can look more aesthetic when edited in this way.

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Mary-Ellen Bartley

Research –

• Born in New York, 1959.
• Her photography is known to have an abstract take on it.
• Her work is found in numerous exhibitions across the USA.

“7 things again and again” is a project which Bartley made where she uses the same 7 various objects over and over again which are photographed in different ways.

Here are some examples underneath of some of the work she has created:

Photomontages

Here is an example of Bartley’s photomontage which she created that I will take inspiration from when making my own. I will create it by using the previous photos of 7 objects which I have taken from my favourites on Adobe Lightroom, printing them out and ripping them apart then sticking them back together onto a sheet of paper.

4 photos that I will use –

Edits –

An experiment of my work similar to theirs –

Letha Wilson

Example of her work –

I will be using the same 4 pictures from before to create these interlocking cut outs, like Wilsons work, I will experiment with different filters on Adobe Lightroom on a couple of them to create a contrast when I edit them.

My work inspired by her –

Other experimentation of photomontages

I also experimented with different variations of photomontages while editing by hand, I really like how some of them turned out as they are really unique and individual.

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For the photos above, It shows how many variations of transforming photographs through techniques which I used in the caption.

I think that there a few successful ones such as the crumpling technique where it manipulates the photo which creates this old, crinkled look to a photograph that makes it look quite vintage, due to the objects which are used in it, and as if it was taken a long time ago. Another technique which I enjoyed experimenting with was the slicing technique as it makes the two photos look as if they have been woven together as you can see how the pieces all gradually go together throughout the photo, which resembles a puzzle.

For this project I printed out various photos from a previous photoshoot and used the guillotine, craft knifes and foam boards to make different photo montages. Photo montage is  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 the final image may appear as a seamless physical print.

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Once I printed these photos out I used a craft knife to cut out the women in my portrait and placed both over a the background photo of old workers from Hamptonne given to us by Jersey Heritage. These will be

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For this second piece I used a photo I took at Hamptonne which I then cut into three so that I could re-arrange them after mounting them onto foam board.

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