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A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs. Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2).

Photomontage was also used to great effect by various Pop Artists in the mid 20th Century Pop art was a reaction to abstract expressionism and was similar to DADA in some ways. Many Pop Art images and constructions tackled popular consumerism, advertising, branding and marketing techniques. Pop art also explored political concerns such as war, and gender roles too

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-Surrealist and Dada collages made by artists like Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch and Man Rey 

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.” Through Stezaker’s elegant juxtapositions, he adopts the content and contexts of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings

 “My ideal is to do very little to the images, maybe just one cut: the smallest change or the most minimal mutilation,” he stated of his work. “What I do is destructive, but also an act of deliberate passivity.”

In his Marriage series, Stezaker focuses on the concept of portraiture, both as art historical genre and public identity. Using publicity shots of classic film stars, Stezaker splices and overlaps famous faces, creating hybrid ‘icons’ that dissociate the familiar to create sensations of the uncanny. Coupling male and female identity into unified characters, Stezaker points to a disjointed harmony, where the irreconciliation of difference both complements and detracts from the whole. Using stylistic images from Hollywood’s golden era, Stezaker both temporally and conceptually engages with his interest in Surrealism. Placed in a contemporary context, his portraits retain their aura of glamour, whilst simultaneously operating as exotic ‘artefacts’ of an obsolete culture. Similar to the photos of ‘primitivism’ published in George Bataille’s Documents, Stezaker’s portraits celebrate the grotesque, rendering the romance with modernism equally compelling and perverse.

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Handmade Experiments

These are some of the photomontages that I made by cutting out different pieces from my Hamptonne portraits or still life objects and placing them together.

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In the top right I have places a cut out of a violin and another cut out of a hat on top of one of my portraits from Hamptonne. Having the different shapes helps frame her face and bring the attention to the portrait. In the bottom photo I have used a cut out of the good wife and a quote from another photo I took at Hamptonne. I have placed these onto one of the courtyard’s. I like how you can see the texture of ripping the paper instead of cutting it, it gives the montage a more rustic look.

In this montage i have used two portraits of the good wife and placed them onto a background with apples and leaves, the green in them standout because there’s not as many bright colours. I like how you can see two different views of the goodwife and with different poses and lighting.

Photoshop Experiments

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We have also done different experiments in photoshop this allowed me to have more freedom and be more creative with what I chose to do. The middle photo I did a Walker Evans inspired edited, which is where I have halved to different images and put them together. On the right I have used one of my photos from Hamptonne as a background and but black dots around the shoes to make it look like the photo has been hole punched.