fotomontase

Fotomontase is the art and technique of creating a single image by combining multiple photographs. It encompasses both analogue methods, such as cutting and pasting prints or working with multiple negatives, and digital methods, where photographs are layered and blended to form a cohesive composition. Photomontage can be used for artistic expression, visual commentary, or imaginative storytelling, and it often relies on careful selection, alignment, and tonal matching to produce convincing or deliberately surreal results.

Historically, photomontage emerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries with photographers and printmakers who assembled composites to tell moral or allegorical stories. Early practitioners such as Oscar Gustave Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson created multi-image tableaux by combining negatives, while the German Dada movement popularized political and satirical montages through artists like John Heartfield and Hannah Höch. In the later 20th century, artists such as David Hockney helped renew interest in multi-image collage, and digital technologies expanded the possibilities for montage across art, advertising, and media.

Techniques vary by medium. Analog montage often involves physical cutting, mounting, and retouching of photographic elements, along with multiple exposure or combined negatives. Digital photomontage relies on image-editing software to stack layers, apply masks, adjust color and perspective, and blend edges for seamless or intentionally jarring effects. Common tools include Photoshop, GIMP, and other image-editing programs, with practitioners paying attention to lighting, perspective, and edge treatment to achieve the desired result.

Ethical and legal considerations include the potential for deception in journalism and documentary work, where the disclosure of montaged content is important and, in some contexts, subject to copyright restrictions.