Hannah Hoch (1889 – 1978) was one of the originators of photomontage. She was “an important member of the Berlin Dada movement and a pioneer in collage. Splicing together images taken from popular magazines, illustrated journals and fashion publications, she created a humorous and moving commentary on society during a time of tremendous social change. Acerbic, astute and funny, Höch established collage as a key medium for satire whilst being a master of its poetic beauty.” (http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/about/press/hannah-hoch/)
‘Dancer’ and ‘Bride’, Hannah Hoch
I like her use of colour and the way the elements of the collage integrate – she “joyously makes use of cut-outs from colour-print and popular culture”
John Heartfield (1891 – 1968) was “an artist and a pioneer in the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements.” (Wikipedia).
‘Adolf, Der Ubermensch’ and ‘Grosses Diner Im Herrenklub’, John Heartfield
He was a member of the German Communist Party and is credited with being the founder of the art of modern photomontage. Both Hoch and Heartfield were artists of the Dada movement which developed in reaction to World War 1 and nationalism. Heartfield is best known for his montages that mocked Hitler but he was also renowned for his developments in typography, book jacket design, theatre and mixed media.
The image above left, entitled ‘Adolf, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk’ (1932), superimposes an X-ray of a chest onto an image of Hitler and refers to the funding given to the Nazi party by industrialists and financiers.
As I began to select pictures from magazines and newspapers for my own cut and paste efforts I found myself finding combinations that made political statements and so I pursued this, while taking the suggested starting point of background picture, followed by a figure, and superimposing images onto the figure. This is the most complete of my efforts and uses an image of the destruction in Aleppo juxtaposed with a collage intended to represent the consumer-focused and largely untouched West. The vertical railings physically link the two contrasting scenes.
Some other efforts which feel like starters for other fuller images:
Jamie, food police:
taking over the library:
white cliffs:
slaughtering the landscape:
Foundations in Photography 