A photomontage is a collage constructed from different photographs. It can also be describes as a combination of several photographs joined together for artistic effect or to show more of the subject than can be shown in a single photograph.

The technique has been used to make political statements and became well known in the early 20th century, mainly World War I and II.

Artists such as Raoul Haussman , Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield employed cut-n-paste techniques as a form of propaganda, as did Soviet artists like Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitsky.

Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism, which is closely related to Surrrealism.

Dadaism

Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire. New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris. Dadaist activities lasted until the mid 1920s.

Originally a colloquial French term for a hobby horse, Dada, as a word, is nonsense. As a movement, however, Dadaism proved to be one of the revolutionary art movements in the early twentieth century, born as a response to the modern age.