Earlier in the year we had a class for photo montage. This class is about what to do next. It is NOT essential to have done the previous class. This is about having fun with images and seeing where its takes you.
- Tutor, Kate Measham
- Wednesday 4th November
- 10.00 – 11.30 am, Via Zoom
- Free as part of the HAS Art Club, £12 for visitors
- Video available after has finished (£12)
Images for consumption are everywhere, whether shared selfies, fashion stills, photos for biographies or visions of beef cattle in a county show.
This exercise combines a playful introduction to photo montage with fantastical drawing. This is an end in itself. However… it can be an exciting step into something completely different.
Photo montage images are full of interesting juxtapositions, strangeness and implications. Political statements, and questions can emerge from this simple technique. By working from the montage, by drawing and painting, the image will take a step in a new direction
Photomontage can help you make a leap of imagination. Looking at the picture below it could be interpreted as a very clever man looking out of the windows at the studio in Bransbury, licking his lips at the prospect of one of our delicious lunches. I suspect I would not have drawn this image without this strange montage leap of faith.
This class is about helping you to have the courage to do something extraordinary, possibly strange, and see where it takes you.
Materials
- Magazines or images from the internet,
- found images,
- glue,
- camera or mobile phone
- paper, pencils, paints. Probably stick to something quick and easy to use for this session.
What to expect in this class
To some degree you can spend time BEFORE the class preparing your photo montage. We will spend 10 minutes at the beginning of the class playing with images. The class will be mostly about what to do after your montage is created.
Gather Images
You may well have done this before the class. Don’t stick the images together – just place them as you see fit.
Gather magazines, catalogues, old photos or pictures from the internet. At this stage you won’t know quite what you need. I picked up a fishing catalogue – NO faces…even of fish.
Go through the various magazines and cut out, or rip out ANYTHING that catches your eye. This is a very untidy stage – don’t worry about it. All the magazines in the photograph above were from the recycling box.
After I have finished the rubbish will go back into the box.
I thought i would throw together a few photographs to get the ball rolling…
We would love to see your photomontages. If you use instagram please use the hashtag #hampshireartstudioalteredfaces
I’m looking forward to seeing what you get up to.
More Information
The Dadaists saw the satirical potential of photo montage.
Raoul Hausmann 1886-1971
Raoul Hausmann, a founder member of the Berlin Dada group, developed photomontage as a tool of satire and political protest. Although the ‘art critic’ is identified by a stamp as George Grosz, another member of the group, the image was probably an anonymous figure cut from a magazine. The fragment of a German banknote behind the critic’s neck suggests that he is controlled by capitalist forces. The words in the background are part of a poem poster made by Hausmann to be pasted on the walls of Berlin.
Hannah Hoch, The sole female member of Berlin’s 1920s Dada group, produced punchy feminist photomontages of objectified women – cut from fashion magazines, encircled by eyes and adorned with cutlery hair – which were admired at the time and later influenced the punk aesthetic. Dada colleagues sidelined her, the Nazis branded her ‘degenerate’ and while she never recovered her pre-war fame, she was defiantly prolific – painting, drawing and montaging until her death at the age of 88.