photomontage

photomontage. Term applied to a technique of making a pictorial composition from parts of different photographs and also to the image so made. The technique has antecedents in the 19th century, particularly in the work of O. G. Rejlander (1813–75), a Swedish photographer and painter active in England. Known as ‘the father of art photography', he tried to expand the expressive range of photography by experimenting with double exposures and printing from several negatives onto a single sheet of paper. His best-known work in this vein is the highly elaborate allegorical scene The Two Ways of Life (1857), printed from 30 negatives onto two sheets joined together. As the term is now generally understood, however, photomontage involves cutting out, arranging, and pasting pre-existing photographic images rather than the manipulation of negatives taken for a particular purpose. Photomontage in this sense was largely the creation of the Dadaists (specifically the Berlin Dadaists), who used the technique for political propaganda, social criticism, and generally to assist the shock tactics in which they indulged. Often they incorporated type and graphic symbols in the image, the elements being chosen for the meaning they convey rather than (as is often the case in collage) for their decorative qualities. Raoul Hausmann claimed to have invented photomontage in 1918, but no one person can be given the credit. John Heartfield and Hannah Höch ranked with Hausmann among the most distinguished pioneers. Photomontage has also been memorably used by, for example, Max Ernst and other Surrealists and by Pop artists such as Richard Hamilton, but it is now mainly associated with advertising. See also MONTAGE.