Still life – photomontage and experiments

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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.

Alexander Rodchenko

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 Heartfield

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.

Some of John’s images – including those from his “Marriage” collection

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

Experimenting with using negative / positive space – using offcuts and white paper for backgrounds, adding cutouts.
Experimenting with splicing, and juxtaposing images

Photoshop Experiments

  • Adding two layers of same image
  • Editing
  • Flipping and turning black and white

  • Resizing top layer
Experimenting with object images – creating shape, shadow and framing with double exposure.
Cutting out circles and placing another image underneath

Inspiration

Cutting out shape of object using lasso tool, adding Hamptonne image underneath.

Using Lasso tool and splicing image – adding another underneath

Using marquee tool to add a portrait onto an object image

Adding portrait onto another image
Experimenting with placement of a second image on another
Splicing inspired by Walker Evans
Final edit
Another Walker Evans inspired edit – this time turning one image black and white – use of different layers and selective editing.
Final Edit

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.

My final edited gif

I then made another, using the same method.

My second gif

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