The second part of this assignment calls for us to use our post-processing skills to produce a single digital-montage using the elements from a minimum of two and a maximum of five digital files; the components of our final image should be from our own photographs rather than from found images
‘The culture that we live in has become such a sort of cut-and-paste culture’, states the Whitechapel Gallery’s Daniel Herrmann, ‘Collage has become a representative for the state of cultural production. It offers an alternative to an ever-shifting, ever-fluid image world and reminds people of tactility, texture, and the reality of the world we live in.’ (Herrmann 2016). To be honest, I had never thought of the photomontage as a fluid, representative image however, reading the Widewalls article surrounding the history of the photomontage, it has made me think of the montage in a different light. Of course, there are artists such as Antonio Mora and Joachim Beyrowski who use the photomontage to create surreal, expressionist images however, there are artists such as Adrian Brannan and David Hockney who create an ever-evolving story of the scene they find before them in their work.
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- ‘Bye’ [Digital Montage] c.(n.d.) Artist: Antonio Mora
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- ‘Dream Image’ [Digital Montage] c.(n.d.) Artist: Joachim Beyrowski
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- ‘The London Underground – Euston Station’ [Photomontage] c.n.d. Artist: Adrian Brannan
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- ‘Pearblossom Highway #1’ [Photographic Collage] c.(1986) Artist: David Hockney
After re-reading the second part of this assignment, I am relieved to find that I only have to recreate one digital montage (I was under the impression that I had to create more), meaning that it is a little easier than I initially thought however, in light of the revelation that the photomontage can be used fluidly, this also means that I have had a rethink about the kind of image I want to recreate. Initially overlaying multiple images was the path I was looking to follow however, I have been inspired by the work of Brannan and Hockney and therefore have decided to create a collage of sorts that enables me to tell the story of a scene within the landscape.
To see how this could work, I have made a rough photomontage of a scene that I have visited a few times over the weekend and using this as my starting point, feel that I could achieve my objective for the assignment.
‘The Gruffalo’ [Digital Photomontage] c.(2017) Artist: Julie Harding
Obviously, this is a rough interpretation, but it is a good place to start, especially as it has made me think about what I want to show in my image. Now I need to think about a location and understand its transition over time and show this in my composition.
Reference:
Beyrowski, J. (n.d.) Dream Image [digital montage] [online image]. Available at: http://www.joachimbeyrowski.de [Accessed 21 November 2017].
Brannan, A. (n.d.) The London Underground (Euston Station) [photomontage] [online image]. Available at: http://www.adrianbrannan.com/gallery%20600%20pages/London%20Underground,%20Euston%20Station.htm [Accessed 21 November 2917].
Harding, J. (2017) The Gruffalo [Digital Photomontage]. Artists own.
Herrmann, D. (2016) cited in: Kordic et al. (2016) Photomontage – The History and Meaning of a Photo Composition [online article]. Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/photomontage-art/ [Accessed 20 November 2017].
Hockney, D. (1986) Pearblossom Highway #1 [photographic collage] [online image]. Available at: http://www.davidhockney.co/works/photos/photographic-collages [Accessed 21 November 2017].
Mora, A. (n.d.) Bye [digital montage] [online image]. Available at: http://www.mylovt.com/collections/all [Accessed 21 November 2017].
Bibliography:
Adobe. (n.d.) Create Collages, Montages | Photoshop, Photoshop Elements [online article]. Available at: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/create-collages-montages-photoshop-photoshop.html [Accessed 20 November 2017].
Joachim Beyrowski Website: http://www.joachimbeyrowski.de
Adrian Brannan Website: http://www.adrianbrannan.com
Burns, S. (n.d.) Piece by Piece [online article]. Available at: http://www.adrianbrannan.com/news.htm [Accessed 20 November 2017].
David Hockney Website: http://www.davidhockney.co/works/photos/photographic-collages
Kordic et al. (2016) Photomontage – The History and Meaning of a Photo Composition [online article]. Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/photomontage-art/ [Accessed 20 November 2017].
Antonio Mora Website: http://www.mylovt.com
Photography 2: Digital Image and Culture 