Sunday, 24 November 2013

Photomonatage: Then and Now

      


A photomontage is the process where one takes a photograph and cuts it up, combining it with other photos and or text to create a new surreal looking work. This is all thanks to the invention of the camera.

The Dadaists created quite a few different photomontages; they successfully made them interesting and surreal. Ironically the Dadaists were an anti-art movement. This anti-art is an example of the evolving art life, this is when the popular becomes disliked and a new opposite style emerges. The Dadaist were rebels in their own sense going against the establishment and the military. Its hard to explain but this is what can be seen in the images above. Within chaos one can find emotion, a meaning through a lock of meaning. The idea of having that typical ‘grid work’ art is broken completely. When we look at their artworks se see the use of dull colours, this may have been a coincidence (using only what was available at the time) but it may have been used as a reflection on the dullness of life at the time.



Image 3


With today’s modern software’s photomontages have changed dramatically. Although some artists still choose to keep that cut out scrapbook style, we find more digital versions of these collages out there. In the digital world it became possible to combine images with other unrelated images in a more natural looking way. Therefore once looking at subject matter (look at image 3) one can see that the coliseum and the sphinx are put into a different surreal location, but they are digitally blended in.

Technology has brought us a long way in the art world. The impossible has become possible. But the creativity although always growing will never be lost. Artists will keep looking back into history for inspiration to furthermore develop a new style or to bring an old one back to life.

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