Photomontage

Photomontages seem to have begun almost as soon as photographs were printed on paper. Henry Peach Robinson (1830-1901) is credited as being the first to make them. He was an English photographer who started his career in 1857, and was making photomontages as early as 1858. Many of the early examples of fine-art photomontage combined photographed elements with watercolours, and some retouching is the rule rather than the exception, to add shadows, etc. The completed montage is often re-photographed.

Cut-and-paste

The basic technique - "cut and paste" - was originally exactly that. A figure, for example, is cut from a photographic print using scissors or a scalpel. With fibre-based paper, one can score the emulsion with a scalpel, then tear the paper at an angle to give a very thin edge, so there is no "step" where the figure is glued to the landscape. (Scoring on the back of the paper, and tearing outwards at an angle produces a ragged edge on the emulsion side, which is sometimes useful in disguising a join in a panorama, for example.) One can also sandpaper under the edges to thin them. Traditionally, the glue used is rubber solution; any surplus can be rubbed off the emulsion without leaving a mark. With resin-coated papers, the scoring and tearing technique can be used, but the coating on the back tends to peel off as a layer. Alternatively, the figure can be let into the background, like marquetry or tiling, so there is no overlapping of the elements. If necessary, the joins can be "grouted" with (e.g.) soft wax crayons.

Superimposing

There are other techniques for superimposing images. Two or more separate images can be printed on a single piece of photographic paper (combination printing). A cut-out can be mounted on a rigid backing and photographed in front of a real landscape, or a big photographic enlargement. There are also front-projection techniques. Computer graphics have started a flood of new montages. The eye is remarkably good at picking out any errors of scale, perspective, tone or lighting, so enormous care has to be taken when shooting and printing the different elements, especially with colour.

David Ridge

In the series of twelve David Ridge Photomontages (1999/2000), the whole composition is designed in advance, and all the elements are photographed specially for the purpose on colour negative film, using 35mm, medium format, or 5x4inch cameras as appropriate. Each of these pictures is a landscape with figures. The number of figures ranges from three to more than forty, but only one model is used in each montage.A feature of most of these images is a sculptured or constructed landscape. In principle, these landscapes could be any scale to suit the detail or texture required, but in practice depth of field gives them a minimum size. Sometimes the scale of the landscape changes from the front to the back of the picture (as with some stage and film sets). The angle of view is quite wide in some of them, which means that the perspective is critical in the planning and shooting. Where there is a feature with natural light, such as the sea or the sky, the lighting for the studio elements has to match. All the sculptured landscapes, the costumes and makeup are original. No digital techniques are used to assemble or retouch the final images, which have been rephotographed on 5x4inch colour negative and transparency film.

An example

The photomontage "Mermaids 1" is a suitably complex example. A small, circular, rocky island sits in the sea, with waves gently lapping at its sides. Eighteen mermaids are emerging from short, upright tubes, which hide their tails or legs. They have seaweedy patterns on their bodies, and long, wet hair. The island is reflected in the water.The most difficult problem was to get the interaction between the island and the sea - the shape of the waves against the sides, and the reflections in the water. We made a floating island, as near as practical to the "real" size, which could be dismantled for transport, and reassembled on the seashore. After waiting a long time for suitable weather, it was launched into the sea (near Westward Ho!) and photographed. The model island, with its limpets, barnacles and the mermaids' houses was lit in the studio to match the watery sunlight of the sea picture, and shot with the same perspective. Similarly, the mermaid herself, suitably made-up and dampened, was photographed in all the different poses. All the various elements were then printed to a consistent scale - larger than the final design size of twelve inches wide - carefully scaling the mermaids according to their distance from the viewer. When the prints were montaged together, no part of the floating island remained. Finally, the montage was retouched, where necessary, and rephotographed.