Section 2
Photography, Collage and Photomontage

The “Photography as Art” debate is as old as photography. Early photographers sought to replicate the esthetic of painting with this new medium. Others pursued photography as a way to simply document the world around them. Since then, thousands of artists have created millions of photographs with artful intent. One thing cannot be denied … the evolution of modern art since the birth of photography has been profoundly affected. Over a hundred years later, we have witnessed a myriad of technical photographic innovations, each one a new tool in the toolbox and another means of expression to be harnessed in the hands of the right photographers. Photography as art is a debate that has been over for some time now, yet every leap in technology somehow still stirs up the question, “Is it art?” The act of taking a photograph, something that for the entire history of this medium required even the most basic camera, now is accomplished with the ubiquitous cellphone, and it is the camera.

But it is much more than that. It is actually many kinds of cameras, many kinds of lenses, many kinds of darkroom effects, and a digital photographic workstation in your pocket. For those old enough to have shot, developed, and printed their own photos in a darkroom, even those who became proficient “Photoshop” users, the leap to an iPhone and iPad for image editing can only be described as liberating and exhilarating. What we’ll do in this section is look at a group of photographers who are using their iPhones to capture photographs and, through the use of specific apps, enhance their vision. This section also includes artists creating collage, photomontage, or “iPhone/iPad mash-ups”, art created using multiple apps.

Early precedents to collage as art occurred from the invention of paper until the calligraphers of 10th century Japan, and again in the religious imagery of 13th century medieval Europe. It was Picasso and Georges Braque, at the heart of the Cubist movement in the early 20th century, who invented the term collage (from the French word for glue) to describe this modern art method. Today, in retrospect, we can view their collages as the beginnings of modernism in art as the plane of the canvas is broken. The incongruous ideas contained in collage and photomontage were also the predecessor to Conceptual art as artists have this peculiar habit of breaking the rules, and exploring and expanding the boundaries once they are broken.

Then, after WWI, the Berlin Dadaists needed a word to describe their use of photography, the ultimate “readymade” element, included in their art. They chose photomontage because it expressed the mass-produced, anti-art message they wanted to deliver. New technology would replace the elitist systems in place. They viewed themselves as art engineers, assembling their art from mechanical reproductions (photographs, newspapers) being produced by the new world of mass communication. The roll call of modern artists who have used photomontage or collage as part of their body of work is long and impressive: in addition to Picasso and Georges Braque, we can include Matisse, Hannah Höch, Juan Gris, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, David Hockney, and the Starn Twins.

On the iPhone and iPad, the concepts of collage and photomontage are extended to include the infinite possibilities of the web. Do you need a texture, an element, a tiny scrap from the mountain of visual data pumped into the web every single second? The only thing that matters now is your idea, as any written or visual element created in the history of humankind is available, delivered directly to your mobile device. Copyright laws are to be taken seriously and the copyright of others must be dealt with respectfully, but the Supreme Court has already ruled in favor of artists’ limited usage of copywritten material in their collages. The “Do Unto Others” rule is a good one to follow here.