graphic design - Photomontage

PHOTOMONTAGE
Photomontage is the process (and result) of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture was sometimes photographed so that the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print.Author Oliver Graut in his book Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion notes that the creation of artificial immersive virtual reality, arising as a result of technical exploitation of new inventions, is a long-standing human practice throughout the ages. Such environments as dioramas were made of composited images.
The first and most famous mid-Victorian photomontage (then called combination printing) was "The Two Ways of Life" (1857) by Oscar Rejlander, followed shortly by the pictures of photographer Henry Peach Robinson such as "Fading Away" (1858). These works actively set out to challenge the then-dominant painting and theatrical tableau vivants .
Many of the early examples of fine-art photomontage consist of photographed elements superimposed on watercolours, a combination returned to by (e.g.) George Grosz in about 1915. He was part of the Dada movement in Berlin which was instrumental in making montage into a modern art-form. They first coined the term "photomontage" at the end of the war, around 1918 or 1919. The other major exponents were John Heartfield , Hannah Höch , Kurt Schwitters , Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader .
The Dadaist movement began in the early 20th century. Its followers had anti-establishment ideals and were interested in breakout out against the status quo. The history of the time, mainly the aftermath of WWI, provided for much of the Dadaists subject matter. Popular artists of the Dadaist movement are John Heartfield who produced anti-Nazi art, Hannah Hoch who focused on women roles and politics, Kurt Schwitters who worked in a less political way that the others, and Raul Hausmann who was said to have coined the word photomontage. With that being said Photomontage was founded during the time of Dadaism. It consists of photography, type, and line and should not be confused with a collage. While a photomontage can be collaged together, there is a deeper meaning to the connection from one element to the next in a photomontage. Most of them make some sort of social, political or cultural message as well, while a collage can sometimes act as merely an aesthetic piece.