Photomontage 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.
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.
- A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs.
The Art Critic (1919–20)
Tate
- Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2)
- 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 Lissitsk
- Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism…which is closely related to Surrrealism
John Heartfield is born in Berlin, Germany 19 June 1891 as Helmut Franz Josef Herzfeld. In 1916, he changes his name to John Heartfield in protest against the anti-British sentiment in Germany, expressed, for example, in the manner of which people greeted each other: ” – God punish England – May he punish it”.