What two reasons can you think of for this revival of an old technique?
| Fading Away by Henry Peach-Robinson |
| Lonesome City Dweller by Herbert Bayer |
Painters of the Victorian period would have criticized these photo montages because they were more crafted than they were one photograph. It is likely that the painters felt attacked in that the photographers could capture life's moments and then combine them where the painters had to hand craft these moments themselves; the photographers were able to use their resources to create a unique and lifelike advantage that the painters did not possess.
The general public likely enjoyed these pictures for those exact reasons. The montages consisted of multiple pictures which allowed the public to connect with the images - it also added a level of fright (second image above) and one of wonder and gloom (first image above). Art that can be connected with is valuable and this is what the photo montages created.
I relate the revival of this technique to the cycling of fashion trends. High-waisted jeans and shorts were the trend in the 80's, went out of style for a decade or two, and they are now a trend today. Flannel shirts, floral prints, and pastel colors are other instances of this cycling. So, just as clothing cycles through its trends, photographic techniques do so as well. The other reason this technique may have been revived is that artists are feeling a stronger and stronger need to communicate important messages and moods to their audiences. With people being conditioned to pay attention to (or to ignore) as many visual stimuli there is an emerging need to create something that will stop people in their tracks and to make them truly think about what it is they are seeing.
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