Photomontage
A definition of Photomontage is ‘composite
photographic image made either by pasting together individual prints or parts of prints’, by
successively exposing individual images onto a single sheet of paper, or by
exposing the component images simultaneously through superimposed negatives. In
the 1880s the juxtaposition of separate images through successive exposures
became fashionable in the “combination print,” especially in the form of the
contrived group portrait. The subjective, fragmented, potentially absurd
qualities of this juxtaposition were exploited by Dadaist and Futurist artists
of the early 20th century.
With the proliferation of photographic images in the
early part of the 20th century artists started to use photographs in new ways. The
avant-garde artists from the 1920s coined the term ‘photo montage’. A photomontage consists of
the juxtaposition of fragments of photographs pasted together to create a new image.
Film, photography, and photomontage represented the
most up-to-date media available to depict new experiences and perceptions. As an
organizing structure, montage was thought to echo the pace, the multiplicity, the
disorientation, the thrill, and of course the fragmentation of everyday life (Lavin, M. 1993).
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