Contents
| This theme includes example sections and will be revised and added to as we proceed. Suggestions for additions, improvements and the correction of factual errors are always appreciated.
Status: Collect > Document > Analyse > Improve |
Introduction
7.01 Photomontage > Introduction to photomontage
 
The use of multiple images to create a single final image occurred within ten years of the announcement of the invention of photography with possibly the earliest being made by Dr Thomas Keith (1827-1895) of the Grassmarket in Edinburgh in around 1848 where he created multiple calotype images on a single paper negative.
To start any discussion in this area it is useful to clarify some of the terminology used to be sure we are all talking about the same subject. There are multiple ways of putting together photographs to create a finished object and these include:
7.02 Photomontage > Understanding the terms
   
These examples show the four types of artworks that combine photographs into a single piece:
7.03 Photomontage > C.W. Applegreen creates a composite photograph
  
This rare carte de visite series shows photographer C.W. Applegreen preparing a composite photograph along with the fruit of his labour.
Composite photographs
7.04 Photomontage > Composite and combination prints: Defined
    
Creating a Composite photograph (also called a combination print) means having one or more negatives that are then used to create a single print. This requires careful planning and scrupulous attention to detail during the printing to get smooth transitions between the different parts of the image so it becomes a seamless whole. Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) used this technique for his seascapes so that both the sea and sky could be correctly exposed. Perhaps the most famous example of a composite photograph is the Two Ways of Life (1857) by the Swedish born photographer Oscar Rejlander who combined thirty negatives of figures and groups to create a single 16" x 31" image.
Photographers who made combination prints:
George N. Barnard
Gustave Le Gray
Oscar Rejlander
Henry Peach Robinson
The 1869 classic by Henry Peach Robinson Pictorial Effect in Photography: Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers. To which is added a chapter on Combination Printing includes a contemporary method for creating combination prints.
7.05 Photomontage > George N. Barnard: Composite photographs during the American Civil War (1861-1865)
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
   
With wet collodion negatives the light sensitivity of the chemicals was such that one could get the correct exposure for the sky or for the landscape but rarely both. The French master of seascapes, Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884), got around this by taking two plates each exposed correctly for a part of the shot and then creating a final image that was a composite of the two.
With George N. Barnard (1819-1902) during the American Civil War (1861-1865) these examples show both the original negative (presumably from a plate) and the retouched version where the clouds are both dramatic and visible. If you look at the skyline on the retouched version of the Potter House image and examine the trees on the right hand side you can clearly see where the two images have been joined.
Davis, Keith F., 1990, George N. Barnard: Photographer of Sherman‘s Campaign, (Hallmark Cards) [Hardcover] [ISBN: 0875296270]
7.06 Photomontage > George N. Barnard: Rebel Works in front of Atlanta
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
An examination of the skyline and the edges of the tree branches in the photograph Rebel Works in front of Atlanta, No. 1 by American Civil War (1861-1865) photographer George N. Barnard shows that this is a composite made from multiple distinct negatives.
Photomontage
7.07 Photomontage > Photomontage - Defined
       
Photomontage is the process of placing together two or more different photographs, or parts of the same photograph, together to form a single image. This used to be done by physically cutting the photographs and then pasting the different parts together. The joins concealed by sanding them down and painting them and the pasted image rephotographed to create the final photomontage. This technique was widely used in the 1920's and 1930's for political propaganda, advertising, exaggeration photo postcards and image experimentation.
Computer assisted photomontage has extended the possibilities of photomontage and many artists now combine photographs to create seamless worlds of fantasy. The worlds of Jerry Uelsmann relied on imagination and darkroom technique but with contemporary artists the digital darkroom has replaced the chemical. Some creators use existing photographs and computer algorithms to generate a new work - for example Robert Silvers does this wth his photomosaics. Others, such as John Paul Caponigro, combine the computer and their own images to create digital images that evoke moods and deeper emotions. For Maggie Taylor the scanner is as important as the camera and the scanned objects are combined into surreal colour fantasies.
Photographers:
Eugène Appert (during the Paris Commune, 1871),
John Paul Caponigro,
David Hockney,
William H. 'Dad' Martin,
Herbert Matter,
Scott Mutter (Surrational images),
Robert Silvers (Photomosaics),
Maggie Taylor,
Val Telberg,
Jerry Uelsmann
7.08 Photomontage > Henry Hering - Alfred Reeves: Photograph. The Kings and Queens of England
        
7.09 Photomontage > William Notman: Photomontages
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
 
7.10 Photomontage > J. Pécsi: Photo und Publizität - Photo and Advertising (1930)
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
  
J. Pécsi Photo und Publizität - Photo and Advertising (Berlin: Josef Singer A.-G, 1930), First edition. 4to. 15,[2], xxxiipp. Original photographic wrappers protected by modern mylar. Rare first edition of József Pécsi's remarkably bold advertising photomontages, and one of the first books on the subject of photography in advertising. Both the leading prize in commercial photography in Hungary and the library at the House of Hungarian photography are named after this key figure of the New Objectivity and European avant-garde. Illustrated with 36 photomontages printed in red and black. Pages unopened as issued. Text in German and English.
7.11 Photomontage > Portugal 1934: Photomontage as propaganda
                           
This series on Portugal shows the powerful combinations of photographs and text that were becoming common in European propaganda during the 1920s and 30s. In the Soviet Union Alexander Rodchenko was using similar layouts to portray technical achievements in USSR in Construction along with other photomontagists such as Gustav Klutsis. In Weimar Germany John Heartfield was using graphical juxtapositions to highlight the dangers of rising Fascism.
The illustrations for this exhibition are taken from the book Portugal 1934 published in Lisbon and edited by S.P.N. The acronym stood for the Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda in the days before Joseph Goebbels put such negative connotations on the word that it is still difficult to use it. This book was the official propaganda book for the Estado Novo, the right-wing regime inaugurated by António de Oliveira Salazar in 1933 and it includes photographs by the most famous Portuguese photographers of the time: Alvão, A. Rasteiro, João Martins, Diniz Salgado, Ferreira da Cunha, Francisco Santos, Horácio Novais, J. Benoliel, José Mesquita, Luis Teixeira, Pinheiro Correia, Mário de Novais, Octávio Bobone, Raimundo Vaissier, Raúl Reis, Salazar Diniz, Serra Ribeiro and V. Rodrigues.
Black cover. Fully illustrated with almost 200 photographs. This large format edition was published with three different covers (orange, green and black). The book includes several half-size pages, full double-pages bleeds and fold-outs.
7.12 Photomontage > Harold Feinstein: Photomontage
       
Collage
7.13 Photomontage > Collage - Defined
                
A collage is made by placing different elements together on a flat surface. In this the photograph is only one of the possibilities and the final collage might include text, clippings, graphics and fabric. The term photocollage is used when photographs are the dominant elements of the overall collage.
Widely used in graphic design and advertising this technique has sporadically flourished for political propaganda - most notably in the period between the First World War (1914-1918) and the rise of Fascism in Weimar Germany with John Heartfield and Hannah Höch and in Russia with Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. Political collage from 1970 onwards has emerged as a means of forcing home a message with maximum impact and the German artist Klaus Staeck was influential in this with a prodigious output including his 1971 book Pornografie that attacked the twisted attitudes and hypocrisy of society.
Photographers:
Wallace Berman,
Victor Burgin,
Paul Citroen,
Nancy Goldring,
John Heartfield,
Hannah Höch,
Gustav Klutsis,
El Lissitzky,
László Moholy-Nagy,
Alexander Rodchenko,
Klaus Staeck,
Edmund Teske,
Piet Zwart
7.14 Photomontage > Decorated pages in nineteenth century photograph albums
                            
7.15 Photomontage > Lady Mary Georgiana Filmer: Decorated album pages
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
     
Techniques and processes
7.16 Photomontage > Carte de visites: Photomontage
               
7.17 Photomontage > Cabinet cards: Photomontage
          
Spirit photography
7.18 Photomontage > William H. Mumler: Spirit photography
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
      
William H. Mummler (1832-1884) was one of American's great spirit photographers and also a considerable fraud. At the time of national grieving for the terrible losses of the American Civil War (1861-1865) he took photographs of people with departed relatives. The most famous of these is his portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, sitting with the departed President standing behind her with his hand affectionately resting on her shoulder. In April 1869 he was tried for fraud and P.T. Barnum testified against him and had the noted New York photographer Abraham Bogardus created a fake to show how it could be done.
"Spiritual Photography", 1869, The Living Age, vol. 102, p. 314-315 gives an account of the trial of Mummler taken from The Saturday Review:
The celebrated Barnum was called among other witnesses for the prosecution, and he stated that he had devoted a portion of his life to the detection of humbugs. About seven years ago Mr. Barnum was composing a book on humbugs, and he wrote to Mr. Mumler that he wished to purchase specimens of his so-called spirit photographs for the Museum of humbugs established by him, Barnum. Spirit photographs were accordingly supplied by Mr. Mumler at two dollars apiece, and they were hung by Mr. Barnum on the walls of the Museum for three or four years. Among them were spirit photographs of Napoleon Bonaparte and Henry Clay, and the positions of the figures were exactly like the well-known engravings of these personages. The title of Mr. Barnum's book was The Humbugs of the World. All the chapter relating to spirit photographs, referred to Mr. Mumler, who does not seem to have objected to the celebrity thus bestowed upon him. The spirit photographs which were hung upon the walls of Mr. Barnum's Museum were labelled " humbug," and the compliment thus conveyed was not repudiated by Mr. Mumler. (p. 315)
7.19 Photomontage > William Hope: Spirit photography and séances
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
    
7.20 Photomontage > Cottingley Fairies
   
Two films Photographing Fairies (1997) and FairyTale: A True Story (1997) have been loosely based upon the 1912 Cottingley Fairies Hoax.
Reusing card photographs
7.21 Photomontage > Bohumil Stepan: Satirical photocollages
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
      
Bohumil Stepán was a Czech graphic designer who created satirical photocollages in the 1960s using carte de visites and cabinet cards as his starting point. A book of his work Familienalbum. Collagen (Munich, 1971) was published.
7.22 Photomontage > Contemporary artworks using card photographs
    
There are artistic flourishes within those who collect both carte de visite and cabinet cards to use the more common ones as the starting point for artistic exuberence. The first significant person to do this was Czech graphic designer Bohumil Stepán but numerous othes have followed.
7.23 Photomontage > The Whimsical Carte de Visite World of the Carte Horse Conspiracy and Archived Associates...
                                                                  
Between 2002 and 2008 an assortment of American collectors, dealers and secretive individuals with surrealist yearnings and a sense of humour concpired together to create the "Carte Horse Conspiracy" to say that there is an official history of such a group would be pushing the bounds of scholarship but an introduction provided by an anonymous member sets the tone.
Late in 2002, Larry Gottheim of BE-HOLD sent a letter and a page from an auction catalog illustrating an album of photo-collaged cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards done by Bohumil Stepán to a bored horse cart driver.
Almost immediately the Horse Carte Conspiracy formed; the members put things to order and got down to the business of conspiring. Between 2002 and 2008 they mercilessly contrived carte-works.
In 2008 there was a big collision of cartes, horses and drivers and all ended up in a ditch. Their glue sticks, tweezers and tiny scissors were scattered across the countryside
Abigail Snippe
Directress of The Home for Aged Carte Horse Conspirators
and
Curatrix des Cartes. |
Assemblage
7.24 Photomontage > Assemblage - Defined
An assemblage is the putting together of multiple three dimensional 'found' elements to create a single artistic object. In the history of photography there are several notable examples of this but the most memorable is the Object Indestructible by Man Ray which consists of a metronome with the affixed eye of Lee Miller on it's swinging arm.
Photographers:
Man Ray, Ivo Precek
alan@luminous-lint.com |
      
General reading
Burns, Stanley, 2008, Newsart: The Manipulated Photographs from the Burns Archive, (Burns Press) isbn-13: 978-1576874646 [Δ]
Card, Hayley, 2007, ‘The Tate Modern’s USSR In Construction‘, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, vol.8, no.1, pp.149-152 [Δ]
Ewing, William A., 2002, Flora Photographica: Masterpieces of Flower Photography, 1835 to the Present, (Thames & Hudson) isbn-10: 0500283486 isbn-13: 978-0500283486 [Δ]
Fineman, Mia, 2012, Faking it: Manipulated photography before Photoshop, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art) isbn-10: 0300185014 isbn-13: 978-0300185010 [Distributed by Yale University Press] [Δ]
Galton, Francis, 1879, ‘Composite Portraits‘, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol.8, pp.132-142 [Δ]
Goldberg, Vicki, 1996, 12 April, ‘Photography Review: From a Soviet Magazine That Made a Revolution Of Its Own in Design‘, New York Times, Arts [Δ]
Heller, Steven & Balance, Georgette, 2001, Graphic Design History, (Skyhorse Publishing Inc.) isbn-10: 1581150946 isbn-13: 978-1581150940 [Δ]
Hoy, Anne H., 1987, Fabrications: Staged, Altered and Appropriated Photographs, (New York: Abbeville Press) [Δ]
Margolin, Victor, 1998, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy, 1917-1946, ( University Of Chicago Press) isbn-10: 0226505162 isbn-13: 978-0226505169 [Δ]
Nakamori, Yasufumi, 2012, Utopia/Dystopia Construction and Destruction in Photography and Collage, (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts) isbn-13: 978-0300179606 [With Graham Bader] [Δ]
S.P.N. [Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda] (eds.), 1934, Portugal 1934, (Lisbon: S.P.N. [Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda]) [Δ]
Siegel, Elizabeth, 2009, Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage, (Art Institute of Chicago) isbn-10: 0300141149 isbn-13: 978-0300141146 [Δ]
Siegel, Elizabeth, 2009, The Marvelous Album of Madame B: Being the Handiwork of a Victorian Lady of Considerable Talent, (Scala Publishers) isbn-10: 1857595793 isbn-13: 978-1857595796 [Δ]
Teitelbaum, Matthew (ed.), 1992, Montage and Modern Life, 1919–1942, (Cambridge: The MIT Press; Boston: The Institute of Contemporary Art) [Δ]
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Thomas F. Barrow
McCarthy Gauss, Kathleen, 1986, Inventories and Transformations: The Photographs of Thomas Barrow, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press) [Δ]
Raoul Hausmann
Hausmann, Raoul, 1979, Photographies, 1927–1957, (Paris: Créatis) [Δ]
John Heartfield
Heartfield, John, 1977, Photomontages of the Nazi Period, (New York: Universe Books) [Δ]
Pachnicke, Peter & Honnef, Klaus (eds.), 1992, John Heartfield, (New York: Harry N. Abrams) [Δ]
Zervigon, Andres Mario, 2012, John Heartfield and the Agitated Image: Photography, Persuasion, and the Rise of Avant-Garde Photomontage, (University Of Chicago Press) isbn-10: 0226981770 isbn-13: 978-0226981772 [Δ]
Robert Heinecken
Borger, I. et al., 1999, Robert Heinecken, Photographist: A Thirty-Five Year Retrospective, (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art) [Δ]
Enyeart, J. (ed.), 1980, Heinecken, (Carmel, CA: The Friends of Photography) [Δ]
Hannah Höch
Lavin, Maud, 1993, Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Höch, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) [Δ]
David Hockney
Weschler, L., 1984, Cameraworks: David Hockney, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf) [Δ]
Barbara Kruger
Kruger, Barbara, 1990, Love for Sale, (NY: Harry N. Abrams) [Δ]
William Notman
Triggs, Stanley G., 1994, The Composite Photographs of William Notman, (Montreal: McCord Museum of Canadian History) isbn-10: 1895615089 [Δ]
Alexander Rodchenko
Elliott, David (ed.), 1979, Alexander Rodchenko, 1891–1956, (Oxford, England: Museum of Modern Art) [Δ]
Khan-Magomedov, S.O., 1986, Rodchenko: The Complete Work, (Cambridge: The MIT Press) [Δ]
Lavrentiev, Alexander, 1995, Alexander Rodchenko: Photography 1924–1954, (Edison, NJ: Knickerbocker Press) [Δ]
Noever, P. (ed.), 1991, Aleksandr M. Rodchenko and Varvara F. Stepanova, (Munich: Prestel) [Δ]
Bohumil Stepán
Stepán, Bohumil, 1971, Bohumil Stepán: Familienalbum. Collagen, (Munich: dtv) [Δ]
Maggie Taylor
2007, Maggie Taylor & Jerry Uelsmann, (Seoul: Museum of Photography) [Exhibition catalogue] [Δ]
Carroll, Lewis & Taylor, Maggie, 2008, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland: Illustrated By Maggie Taylor, (Palo Alto: Modernbook Gallery) isbn-10: 0980104408 isbn-13: 978-0980104400 [Δ]
Haskins, Lola & Taylor, Maggie, 2008, Solutions Beginning with A, (Palo Alto: Modernbook Gallery) [Δ]
Standen, Amy, 2005, Maggie Taylor's Landscape of Dreams, (Adobe Press) [Δ]
Taylor, Maggie, 2012, No Ordinary Days, (The University Press of Florida) [Essay by A.D. Coleman] [Δ]
Jerry N. Uelsmann
2007, Maggie Taylor & Jerry Uelsmann, (Seoul: Museum of Photography) [Exhibition catalogue] [Δ]
Enyeart, J. L., 1982, Jerry N. Uelsmann, Twenty-Five Years: A Retrospective, (Boston: Little, Brown) [Δ]
Uelsmann, Jerry N., 1970, Jerry N. Uelsmann, (New York: Aperture) [Essay by Peter Bunnell] [Δ]
Uelsmann, Jerry N., 1977, Silver Meditations, (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Morgan and Morgan) [Δ]
Uelsmann, Jerry N., 1992, Photo-Synthesis: Photographs by Jerry Uelsmann, (Gainesville: University of Florida Press) [Δ]
Uelsmann, Jerry N., 2000, Approaching the Shadow, (Tucson, AZ: Nazraeli Press) [Δ]
Uelsmann, Jerry N., 2005, Other Realities, (New York: Bulfinch Press) [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com
Resources
Emilio Amero (1901-1976) • Shimon Attie (1957-) • Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) • Mieczyslaw Berman (1903-1975) • Wallace Berman (1926-1976) • George Blair • John Paul Caponigro (1965-) • Paul Citroen (check) • Harold Feinstein (1931-) • Lady Mary Georgiana Filmer (1838-1903) • Fran Forman • John Heartfield (1891-1968) • Robert Heinecken (1931-2006) • Paula Hocks • Thomas Kellner (1966-) • Edmund Kesting (1892-1970) • Gustav Klutsis (1895-1944) • Michael Lebron (1954-) • El Lissitzky (1890-1941) • Man Ray (1890-1976) • William H. Martin • Herbert Matter (1907-1984) • Annu Palakunnathu Matthew (1964-) • Annu Palakunnathu Matthew (1964-) • Pedro Meyer (1935-) • Erdély Miklós (1928-1986) • Barbara Morgan (1900-1992) • Bruno Munari (1907-1998) • Scott Mutter (1944-2008) • Patrick Nagatani (1945-) • Ryan Obermeyer (1981-) • Oscar Gustave Rejlander (1813-1875) • Villroy L. Richardson • Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) • Jaroslav Rössler (1902-1990) • Dominic Rouse (1959-) • Sergei Senkin • Robert Silvers (1968-) • Klaus Staeck (1938-) • Maggie Taylor (1961-) • Karel Teige (1900-1951) • Edmund Teske (1911-1996) • Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (1954-) • Jerry N. Uelsmann (1934-) • Moi Ver (1904-1995) • Alexander Zhitomirsky (1907-1993) | Home > Themes > Photomontage
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