FOTOMONTAJE

I’m sure that more than once we’ve all had fun transforming photos we find in newspapers and magazines. We add glasses and moustaches to faces, and change the expression or give them anything that will make us laugh.

If instead of a pen we had a pair of scissors and a stick of glue, we could cut out eyes, mouths, hair from one photo and stick them onto another. Or we could cut out whole pieces; for example, half a head and stick this to other chunks, to another half a head, and by doing this we would be making an exclusive image: the outcome of our imagination would have been impossible to create with a camera.

What we have sometimes done for fun and possibly with the only intention being to disfigure the portrait, was taken very seriously by some artists at the beginning of the 20^th Century, and they developed a technique that created artistic works with pieces of different photographs. It has evolved more and more in the last 100 years, and we can say that there probably isn’t a photo in the world that hasn’t been altered, except now we no longer use scissors and glue sticks but computer programs to retouch photos.

We want you to experiment with this technique so that you get to know some of the artists who developed the technique and the period in which it was developed.

1) You will have to compile information from the Internet on the origin of Photomontage, its link to collage and to the artistic style called Dadaism. Complete a data record on the three artists associated with its creation and the subsequent development of the technique. The artists are Hanna Höch and John Heartfield (German) and Josep Renau (Spanish).

2) You will also have to create a photomontage from portraits of three classmates taken by digital camera. The photomontage will be a portrait taken at shoulder height (close up) and mix the fragments of the three in it using the program GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and print it out in A4 size.

You can complete this Webquest individually or in groups (maximum three people). If you do the work in groups, share out the information search task but only present ONE data record, and only do ONE photo montage, in which all of you have participated.

Remember that the information that you obtain must be included in your data record and you also must include a representative image from the work of each artist selected. We recommend that you copy the record onto computer and copy the information from the web pages and fill it in that way. It’s also important that you copy the addresses from where you took the images.

DATA RECORD
Definition of Photomontage
Who invented this technique?
From which era and which nationality were they?
What was the artistic style of their first works?
Name others styles that photomontage uses.
HANNA HÖCH	Erase this sentence and stick one of their works here (adjust size by clicking on the corner of the image and dragging)
Nationality
Date of birth and death
Most important achievement
Web address of image
JOHN HEARTFIELD	Erase this sentence and stick one of their works here (adjust size by clicking on the corner of the image and dragging)
Nationality
Date of birth and death
Most important achievement
Web address of image
JOSEP RENAU	Erase this sentence and stick one of their works here (adjust size by clicking on the corner of the image and dragging)
Nationality
Date of birth and death
Most important achievement
Web address of image

Firstly you will have to take a photo of three classmates. Take the photos at foreground (at shoulder height) with a digital camera. It isn’t recommended that you use a mobile phone camera because it has little resolution.

Secondly, download the photos onto the computer and open them with the program GIMP (see BASIC TUTORIAL that I prepared, and if you need more information consult the tutorials included in RESOURSES).

Thirdly, select fragments of the three photos and join them with the tools cut, copy and paste, following one of these three criteria.

(although these examples are done with scissors and paper remember that the computer has the same effect).

	Scarce 1	Average understanding 2	Good understanding 3	Excellent understanding 4	Marks
SEARCH OF FACTS ON PHOTOMONTAGE ON THE INTERNET		Uses the sources offered	Incorporates other sources of information	Selects the best out of a wide range of possibilities
COMPLETION OF PHOTOMONTAGE AND PHOTOMONTAGERS RECORD	Doesn't use all the supplied information	The information is confusing and/or the image selected presents problems	Selects precise information and adds a good image	Adds other relevant information which complements the requested facts
USE OF THE PROGRAMME GIMP TO EDIT FIXED IMAGES	Doesn't acquire the skills in the use of the proposed tools	Partly controls the use of the tools or has problems with some of the phases of the process	Masters the skills	Masters the required skills and acquires other alternative solutions for the same problems
FINISHED PHOTOMONTAGE	Hasn't applied the conditions required for the activity	The chosen fragments haven't been adequately mounted or they are placed in a stereotypical way. The finished piece is careless	Good combination of the three fragments of the photos. Creative	The image is visually attractive and very creative

	Scarce	Average understanding	Good understanding	Excellent understanding
Mark	3 - 5	6 - 8	9 - 12	13 - 16

The main resources you will use in your internet search will be found during the process of the activity. Nevertheless, we suggest that you extend these sources and make selective searches on the diverse ways.

You’re going to find a great number of manuals on the net concerning the GIMP program, some are video- tutorials that can clearly help you to solve your problems. The majority of these are designed for solving photo retouch tricks, tricks to manipulate the photos subtly and unidentifiably by the viewer. Here I include some general GIMP tutorial addresses, but remember that we need the basic cutting tool the most.

With this process you have gained knowledge of the initial stages of the creative technique called Photomontage, some facts on three important artists and some of their works.

You have learnt how to manipulate a digital image using some of the basic tools of a Image Manipulation Program (GIMP, similar to others such as Photoshop).

You have seen how these tools can be used to retouch a photo and therefore mislead those who look at it into thinking it is real and also to use them more freely and in a more creative way, creating deformed but expressive images.

This task is included because we want you to experiment and we hope that you’ve been curious about learning a lot about photomontage and editing photos. Oh and don’t forget: if we haven’t got electricity we’ve always got scissors and glue!!

Title	Photomontage: Do real photos still exist?
Author	Javier Rojas Román
E-mail	j2r2m2@wanadoo.es
Level	Secondary Compulsory Education
Subject	Plastic and Visual Education
Duration	Four sessions
Objectives	In the area of Plastic and Visual Education it plants two basic conceptual objective blocks. One refers to the reading of images: the student will be able to analyze the elements that intervene in the composition of an image (fixed or moving). The other conceptual objectives refer to the creation of images: the student will be able to develop ideas in a creative way, expressing them with images (fixed or moving). As well as this they develop objectives & the student acquires skills to produce art objects. Here we will have to stress the relevant role the required technologies of communication and information have, in aspects such as searching for information on the internet and their treatment afterwards and use of computer design programs. In this activity: 1) The student will be able to create an image from parts of others. 2) The student will be able to acquire information from the internet on the three artists who started and developed the technique. 3) The student will be able to use the basic tools of the fixed image editing program.
Contents	1) The concept of photomontage. 2) Brief reference to the history of Photomontage. 3) Photo retouching programs in order to make photomontages.
Observations	The activities of the photomontage activity can be classified as a part of the use of the collage technique, as it’s use can be extended throughout the four secondary compulsory courses. The task assigned to pupils differ by age, and have to be distinct in terms of the final artistic object they produce, in this way we can suggest from the mere caricature -like transformation of a photo, to the production of a surrealist image with multiple significant symbols. Using image alteration programs also encompasses the expansion of knowledge and complexity of manipulation. However, in order to develop this proposal it is sufficient to acquire a minimum skill in the basic tools cited, and which we consider sufficient to use from the first year.
With thanks to	Linsay Currier
Date	January 2007