Recently, the
collection of images
created by the late
Dan Eldon on his
journey in Africa
demonstrates the
personally expres-
sive nature of this
technique. These
examples of photo-
montages provide
students with a range
of examples that show
how compositions can
be assembled and the
meaning that can be
created from combining
photographs.
Much of the school year for a photography stu- dent is spent perfecting prints in both the wet
darkroom and with digital imaging.
For each assignment, students spend
time creating the correct tones and
compositions and, as a result, accumulate many working prints. Rather than
throwing their rejected prints away,
I have students save the images in a
folder to use on the last assignment
of the year. Students are later asked
to cut out pieces of these images and
reassemble the parts to create new
images with new meanings.
Ellen Mahoney
Photomontage History
The history of the photomontage
spans artistic movements and political history. The recent, delightful
exhibition of Playing with Pictures:
The Art of the Victorian Photocollage
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
illustrated upper-class women’s use of
photographs to create clever, whimsical images in the 1870s.
In the early twentieth century,
Dada artists used the new media
of mass-produced photographs to
assemble collages that reflected their
expression of the absurd. Russian
Constructivists utilized their access
to photographs and ability to quickly
distribute completed photo collages to
promote their political ideas.
images, we discussed themes that
they could explore in their collages
such as fantasy, imaginary landscapes,
strange environments, political statements, dreams, and abstract designs.
I emphasized the effective use of
the elements of design to create a
well-composed collage. This emphasis
on a concept that students learned at
the beginning of the year brought the
course full circle and reinforced the
basic elements of artistic composition.
After cutting out their initial pieces,
students quickly examined how the
positioning and overlapping of these
pieces, as well as the shape of the negative space, affects the impact of their
image.
During the year I save the extra
pieces of 12 x 12" ( 30 x 30 cm) mat
board that become the background for
the collages. A photomontage could
also be created by scanning images
into Adobe Photoshop and selecting
elements from each photo. However,
this process can be time consuming
and students enjoy the layered texture
of the handmade
collage.
The finished
photomontages are
impressive, both
in the wide range
of themes, and
how each student
effectively employed the elements of
design to create their images. In final
critique, students were amazed at
the new meanings that they had cre-
ated out of photographs from previous
assignments.
Photography Class
Photography I is a year-
long course that covers both the wet
darkroom using film, and digital
photography with Adobe Photoshop®.
Students explore the elements of
design in their first assignment, which
requires them to shoot a roll of film
including images
that strongly demon-
strate the elements of
design.
Once students
begin printing in the
darkroom, they are
given a manila folder
in which they keep the year’s “reject”
photos. By May, each student’s folder
has a collection of images that they
have worked on throughout the year.
As students open their folders in the
last weeks of the class to begin their
photomontage, they see the progress
they have made throughout the year
and go over their memories of taking
their photographs.
Students are asked to cut
out pieces of images and
reassemble the parts to
create new images with
new meanings.
Ellen Mahoney is art department chair
at the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks,
California. emahoney@buckleyla.org
Assembling New Images
After a year of in-class critiques that
emphasized both the composition and
the meaning of the students’ photographs, I asked students to take apart
their working prints and assemble a
new images, reminding them that,
often, professional artists must work
with limited resources. As students
looked through their collection of
NATIONAL STANDARD
Students conceive and create works of
visual art that demonstrate an understanding of how the communication
of their ideas relates to the media,
techniques, and processes they use.
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