Artistic photomontage by Uwe Kils of what a complete iceberg might look like under water

Photomontage is the process (and result) of making a composite picture by cutting and joining a number of photographs. The English photographer, Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901) is credited with making the first photomontages, soon after starting his career in 1857.

Many of the early examples of fine-art photomontage superimposed photographed elements 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. The other major exponents were John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, Kurt Schwitters, Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader . Later it was also widely used by the Surrealists, most notably Max Ernst and Pierre Molinier; current exponants include Keith Wigdor.

David Ridge has extended this idea by using photographs of painted, sculptured landscapes as part of the composition (1999/2000). Other methods for combining pictures are also called photomontage, such as combination printing (the printing from more than one negative on a single piece of printing paper - e.g. O. G. Rejlander , 1857) and front-projection and computer montage techniques.

Other influntial artists that used photomontage include Salvador Dali, and David Hockney.

See also: Hag (b.1949)

External links

• Surrealist Photomontages of Keith Wigdor
• Cut & Paste - A History of Photomontage