In terms of photo montaging, it is the experimentation and process of making a “composite photograph” by cutting, gluing, rearranging, and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image for artistic effect.

It is how magazine editors used to design “publications” before digital design software existed. It can exposes “the component images simultaneously through superimposed negatives”. Photo montaging can give the illusion of many object in one, it can look dramatic, bold and most of all interesting to look at in depth.

It’s been a potent and/or strong means of communication within the field of visual art since at least the early 20^th century, first appearing most frequently in work of “Dada artists” e.g Hannah Hoch and John Heartfield. Ever since, photomontage has remained, among artists, popular that work with ranges of styles and images that are different.

Contact Sheet for my headshots:

Experimentation with Photoshop:

In this edit I looked at the experimentation of Brno Del Zou:

Brno Del Zou is a French, photographer. In Brno’s ‘photosculptures’ series he uses the fragmentation of the body in order to better understand it.The body and the faces are revisited and the features under various angles are highlighted in order to create collages interwoven with the other features creating a distorted and unproportional effect.

Brno grew up during the 1970/80s and was influenced by the artistic culture of the time.

These distorted collages are edit in a monochrome palette probably on photoshop.The 1980s were a vital time culturally and were marked by growing global capitalism and widespread mass media. Artists growing up during this time were heavily influenced by this cultural environment.

I personally like Brno’s work as as I feel that each specific photograph expresses a new feeling or thought going through the person’s head. The fact Brno displays their work in black, white and grey undertones adds a negative and mysterious atmosphere.

If I were to recreate this I would change the sizing of the pictures to create a sharp and clean effect yet still disorganized and chaotic as it is much more difficult to observe the photograph if there is much more to explore through the layers.

Bruno Del Zou inspired editing process:

In this Photoshop edit, I decided to do a face fragment idea. Firstly, I opened the images I wanted to work with. They can be desaturated so they look at a similar tone to Brno’s edit’s but decided not to change any hue to them. I selected my background portrait image and double-clicked the layer to unlock it. I used the rectangular marquee tool to draw around different scaled features of a face, moved them around to create a distorted and layered collage using the move tool on the Photoshop toolbar, and used shortcuts such as ctrl d to fit my scale with I wanted the size to be and ctrl j to copy the layer so that I can move it later on in the edit. I took into consideration the other two photographs of the face at a different angle and copied them on the “Base Layer”. At the end of my Photoshop edit, I added a drop shadow to create additional layers and texture behind the fragments moved.

Double/Multi exposures are made by creating and layering photographs on top of each other. It can be created throughout the use of Photoshop and in the camera settings (making and experimenting with layers). The “Blending Options2 and “Opacity Control” can be used too. It can create a surreal feeling for the photographs and it two photographs collided can convey deeper “meaning or symbolism” (like a story).

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Double exposure has been used since the 1860s. In the 1860s it was a significant business boost. “they discovered how to make a portrait subject appear twice in a frame as if they had an identical twin. In each of the pictures, the individual was striking a different pose.” In order to take those now-vintage images, the photographer would snap a picture of the subject in one position. Afterwards, they’d direct themselves in a different pose. A rotating lens caps and special plates were also part of the process. The result ends up looking in a surreal approach to early photographs. The images today through the use of double exposure can be manipulated in a way to look distorted in the viewers perspective.

John Deakin (British Photographer) is known for his portraiture however Deakin has produced some fantastic images with this technique. The video below shows “explores his artistic development from the 1930s into the more recent years…

Contact Sheet for my headshots:

Photographer Andrés Gallardo Albajar takes “double, long and triple exposure photographs in few different locations”. Many artists and photographers use double and long exposure photography to “convey emotional insight, show a progression of movement or relate a change in time”.

For Andres, he does not document he editing’s and experimentation with the use of double exposure and the backstory for how he got the results he got. I think it explains for itself and that Andres did not find it quite difficult to come up with the result as the description is very limited.

Experimentation with Photoshop: