Research on Photomontage

Photo montage is the process of compositing a number of images/ photographs together to make a single. The first ever famous photo montage was "The two ways of life" by Oscar Rejlander, in the Victorian times. These montages challenged the paintings and theatrical tableau vivants of that time. He used the technique of Victorian "Combination Printing", in which he would print more than one negative onto printing paper. However nowadays luckily we have the advantage of digital manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop.

"The Two ways of Life" Oscar Rejlander

He was then followed shortly by the photo montage pictures of Henry Peach Robinson.

Photo montage was used powerfully as propaganda and advertising campaigns, particularly in the times of the dadists, and then continued to the times of the surrealists when artists such as Dali used the technique. 

DADA MOVEMENT 1916- 1923

Dada was a cultural movement that began in Switzerland in WWI. The movement involved art, performance, photography, literature and theatre. It had participants in North America and America. It was a protest against the bourgeois nationalists and colonist interests. In the movement they wanted to create new art. Photo montage seemed to be formed during the movement and involved artists such as Hannah Hoch and Raoul Hausemann (both who I will look at closely now). The montages at this time involved the old cut out and glue method, simple but effective. 

HANNAH HOCH

Hannah Hoch was a German Dada artist. She is one of the originators of photo montage. She was involved with the Berlin Dadists from 1919 and gained a close friendship with Raoul Hausemann, another Dada photo montage original. Through her photo monages she expressed the power of women by combining collected images of women and sticking them alongside machinery often linking to car parts. 

This is one of her most famous photo montages, "Cut with the Kitchen knife" produced 1919-1920. The work holds a political message of power. The images are all from commercial magazines of that time. Hoch has actually included a self portrait in the image however it is very small, this is on the top left corner of the map at the bottom right. The map itself tells us of the countries that had the rights of women to vote at the time, showing us the real connection she had in showing the power of women. I found out that half the image depicts anti-dadists as shown by the words on the image, this area holds politicians of that time. We know the montage is used as propaganda because of the captions used within, for example "Join Dada". Interestingly Einstein is also in the montage and is one of the biggest image included. 

RAOUL HAUSEMANN

Hausemann was an Austrian born artist and writer. Again he is a key figure in the Dada movement and forming photo montage. He met Hoch in 1915 and had an affair with her, creating an artistic bond. When talking about photo montage and and its power, he said "its contrast of structure and dimension, rough against smooth, aerial photograph against close-up, perspective against flat surface, the utmost technical flexibility and the most lucid formal dialectics are equally possible…The ability to manage the most striking contrasts, to the achievement of perfect states of equilibrium…ensures the medium a long and richly productive span of life…"Again Hausmann mixes self portraits, portraits and mechanical parts in his montages, hinting at a cyborg  like demeanour of the people he montages. 

Cover of Der Dada vol 1 including a poem by Raoul Hausmann

"The Mechanical Head"

This is probably Hausmann most famous piece of work, and is the only surviving assemblage, produced around 1919- 1920. It is constructed from a hairdressers dummy, devices are attached such as a ruler, pocket watch and camera segments. 

"Tatlin at Home" 1920

"Dada Cino" 1920

"Dada Conquers" 1920