Explain how Photomontage has been applied as a visual language

Essay: Dissertation for Year 3 Art & Media Practice
Explain how Photomontage has been applied as a visual language, as
well as a technique throughout its history. How has it evolved to meet
technological changes? Discuss whether the technique remains to be an
effective voice of social commentary?
Michael Cox
BA (hons) Illustration
Department of Art and Media Practice
Date: 25.1.2008.
1

Contents page
Chapter 1
Devising a world view: Photomontage
Pioneering the future
Russian Constructivist photomontage 5-16
Examining Schawinsky’s Year XXI of
Fascist Era & Citroën’s Metropolis 16-17
Chapter 2
The Art of Protest
Dada photomontage 21-24
Looking at the work of Goya & Picasso’s
Guernica 24-26
The political photomontage: John Heartfield 26-35
Contrasting and comparing Heartfield’s work
With Richard Hamilton’s 36-37
Martha Rosler: Bringing the War Home 38-39
Chapter 3
A Force Still Today?
Peter Kennard: the anti- war posters of… 40-43
Illustrator Olivier Kugler 43-45
Looking at contemporary editorial
Photomontage 45-58
2

Introduction
My intention is this dissertation is to explore the historical foundations of
political photomontage, find out why and how it began and where it is going
now. I shall begin by exploring the development of the technique by its
early pioneers of the avant garde.
I shall also look in more depth and the so called ‘power’ of the photograph,
investigating and looking for reasons why photomontage practitioners, of
both past and present are so intrigued as to incorporate the medium into their
work.
3

Chapter 1 Devising a World View:
Photomontage pioneering the future
The process of photomontage as a technique of cutting & pasting photographic imagery
has been around since the “second half of the 19th
century.”1
It was only after WW1 that
its potential was seized upon by the pioneers of Russian Constructivism, these being
Alexander Rodchenko, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky. The Constructivists
wished to dispel the uniqueness of a work of art (since this had too much in common with
bourgeoisie society of old) in favour of mechanical production, which could further their
ideological intentions of spreading the unifying message of Communism.2
According to author Victor Margolin,
“…the Soviet Union had no strong tradition of
design for commerce and industry that could compare with Western Europe, thus
the production artists of the avant-garde were forging a new profession as well as a
new visual language.”3
The Stalinist regime like that of Nazi Germany during the 1930’s, sought the use of
propaganda on both a national and international scale, the aim of which was emphatically
espouse the militaristic strength, unity, self sufficiency and technological advancement of
the Soviet state. Through mass industrialisation, Soviet Russia was able to put the
ideology of the social collective into action. Stalin was quoted as saying in 1929:
1
Douglas Kahn, John Heartfield Art and Mass Media, Tanam Press, New York 1985, p106.
Here D. Kahn states that although the Berlin Dadaists George Grosz, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch and
Raoul Hausmann all concurred that it ( photomontage) was invented in 1916, this was only true in terms of
its use by avant-garde movements, since he cites 19th
century examples of photographers O.G. Rejlander
and Henry Peach Robinson as being amongst the first to practice the technique.
2
See Richard Hollis Graphic Design A Concise History, Thames & Hudson world of art, 2001 p46-47
3
Victor Margolin, The Struggle For Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 University of
Chicago Press 1997 p170
4

“We are advancing full steam ahead along the path of industrialism to socialism,
leaving behind the age- long “Russian Backwardness.”4
The regime pushed its propaganda message across through ‘Socialist Realist’ poster
designs and ever more increasingly through the circulation of magazine publications.
In Chapter 5 of The Struggle For Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-
1946, Margolin explains that both Lissitzky and Rodchenko undertook a considerable
number of commissions after Stalin was installed to power. One such commission was
for the propaganda magazine USSR na stroike (USSR in Construction). Margolin states
that “[its] principle mission was to promote a favourable image of the Soviet Union
abroad.”5
Later in this chapter, he describes USSR in Construction (which was printed in
German, English, French, Russian and later Spanish) as being a pictorial magazine which
emphasised not only the magnitude of huge industrial projects such as the White Sea
Canal and the Moscow Metro, but which also included the “collectivisation” of
agriculture, issues on raw materials and themes of family life:
“…gradually USSR in Construction evolved a style of visual rhetoric that shared
the characteristics of Social Realism as introduced by Zhdanov, Gorky and others at
the ALL-UNION Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934.”6
The Russian Constructivists set out to devise a visual form of propaganda, which could
be readily digested by a nation in which says author Dawn Ades, “[the] population was
neither fully literate nor united by a single language.”7
Their task as artists was a
mammoth one, for they were in the words of Victor Margolin, “building a new society”, a
utopian society; through their photomontage works the Constructivists were acting as
visionaries, this art form essentially fulfilling a social duty (as they opposed to an
aesthetic one) as a continuation of the revolutionary struggle.8
4
Joseph Stalin, cited in Donald Treadgold, Twentieth Century Russia 6th edition ed. (Boulder: Westview
Press, 1987), 245
5
Victor Margolin, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 University of
Chicago Press 1997, p166 28-29
6
Victor Margolin, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 p169
7
Dawn Ades, Photomontage revised & enlarged edition Thames & Hudson 1986 p63
8
SeeVictor Margolin, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 p3
5

An example of such photomontage work is Lissitzky’s front cover for issue 10 (fig 1) of
USSR in Construction in 1932, a somewhat glamorous & idealized celebration of the
completion of the Dnieper dam and hydroelectric station.
Margolin states that using the combination of the retouched night photograph of the
dam’s opening ceremony with searchlight beams “airbrushed in”, “Lissitzky managed to
create a visual flow for the issue that reinforced his early interest in film as a narrative
medium for the modern world.”9
The cover with its contrast between the night background & apparent flood-lit letters,
does indeed exhibit a certain cinematic quality; there is a somewhat Film Noir style to the
design also. This style continues on towards the end of the same issue of The USSR in
Construction, with a double page spread (fig 2) titled “The Current is Switched On.”
It consists of the cover image juxtaposed with a photographic portrait of Stalin as
foreground on the far right and an anonymous hand pulling a lever on the left of the
composition. Lissitzky has created a visual balance in terms of light & dark, with the
searchlight beaming between Stalin and the gripped fist to cast shadows against them; a
heightened sense of reality thus prevails in this dynamic composition, the purpose of
which “was to credit Stalin with realizing Lenin’s vision of electrification in the Soviet
Union” according to Victor Margolin.10
The reputation of Lissitzky as a designer was heightened further, when in 1928 he was
commissioned in collaboration with fellow Constructivists Sergei Senkin and Gustav
Klutsis, to design the Soviet Pavilion at the International Press Exhibition in Cologne.
Together, they produced an enormous and spectacular panoramic photo-frieze, (fig 3) at
3.8 metres high and 23.5 metres long.11
Figure 1 (left)
Lissitzy –USSR in Construction, issue 10,
Cover page, 1932
Here I paraphrase Margolin’s explanation of the objectives as well as the deeper meanings behind
Constructivist art.
9
Victor Margolin, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946
University of Chicago Press 1997 p172-173
10
University of Chicago Press 1997 p180
11
See Brandon Taylor, Collage, The Making Of Modern Art, Thames & Hudson, paperback edition 2006
p89 for reference
6

Figure 2 (below)
Lissitzky –‘The Current is switched on’
USSR in Construction issue 10
1932
As in his previous work, Lissitzky incorporates a cinematic quality in this large
photomontage collaboration, which is essentially an advertisement of “the achievements
of the Soviet state, as well as its advancements in press methods” in the opinion of author
Brandon Taylor.12
(Brandon Taylor, Collage-The Making of Modern Art Thames &
Hudson 2001 p86).
12
Taylor explains that the photofrieze “seen by more than five million people” is homage not only to the
heroic figure of Lenin, but also to the workers as it “showed collective activities in agriculture, the
workplace and the worker’s club…” see p89
7

This astonishing exhibit was another opportunity for the Communist USSR, not only to
compete with the entries of the predominantly commerce driven nations, (the
bourgeoisie) but also to further spread its own ideological message. The main strengths of
the photofrieze lye in its composition; the directions of the heads emanating away from
the centre point adds much to its panoramic style. Also, the photographic images
juxtaposed together look somewhat like separate movie stills which, when put together
form a very strong narrative sequence, again demonstrating the effect of cinema upon
Lissitzky. Most importantly however, are the themes & subjects represented by each
photographic image, the Social Realist values and successes of the Republic; there is a
clear reference to Soviet technological advancement to the far right, with a man looking
through a box camera to the fervent interest of his peers. The placement of Lenin’s proud
portrait to the immediate left (also gazing in the same direction) roughly surrounded by ¾
images of workers & peasantry, suggests that such technological success is as result of
the ‘collective’s’ effort under its leader’s guidance; this documentary style of
photomontage is much in keeping the with the mental framework of Constructivism, this
being that “ Constructivists saw in its reality-effect an ideological tool far more powerful
than easel painting” says B. Taylor.13
In ‘sharing’ the reality of its every day people along
side its achievements & ambitions, the photofrieze serves to show the rest of the world
that the USSR exists as a democratic, orderly, harmonious and highly co-operative
society when this was anything but the case. Furthermore, there is an image just left of
centre of a captain at the wheel of his ship, which hints at voyage and exploration beyond
frontiers. Soviet sporting prowess is also allured to (left of Lenin) in the form of a well
built female athlete.
13
Brandon Taylor, Collage the Making of Modern Art, Thames & Hudson paperback edition 2006 p89
8

Figure 3 (above)
El Lissitzky, Sergei Senkin
&Gustav Klutsis
‘The Task of the Press is
Education of the Masses ‘
Photofrieze for the
International Press
Exhibition, Cologne 1928
3.8 × 23.5 metres
9

Figure 4 Gustav Klutsis
Millions of Workers Take Part in
Socialist Competition 1927-28
Lissitzky’s fellow Constructivist colleague Gustav Klutsis was a resounding master of the
photomontage technique. The designer, who made the public statement that
‘Photomontage [was] a new kind of art agitation’ in Moscow 1938,14
considered the
technique to be inseparable from ‘revolutionary politics’ as well as industrial &
technological progress according to author Dawn Ades.15
In his poster titled Millions of Workers Take Part in Social Competition, (fig4) we see the
forthright image of Stalin saluting the masses who Klutsis as B.Taylor explains, “forges
these elements into a severe geometry of diagonals, the colour red and the dominating
‘double’ of Lenin…”16
Lenin’s enlarged ‘double’ body outline raises his cult of personality to a level of almost
divine providence; the photographs of the masses contained with their narrowing as well
as expanding geometric containments, are akin to newspaper reels on production
conveyor belts; Klutsis also includes drawn imagery of factories which follow down with
the ‘movement’ of the workers. Here, the message is straightforward: continual industrial
progress is being made by the efforts of the collective, in accordance with Lenin’s grand
vision. To the bottom left of Lenin is the Photographic image the head of a worker,
juxtaposed at a right angle to the other workers; he could be addressing the viewer, since
he looks towards the audience; he possibly even signifies the viewer, captivated by what
his leader has to say.
As far as Klutsis was concerned, art, economy and culture were inextricably linked:
“Photomontage, as the newest method of plastic art, is closely linked to the
development of industrial culture and of forms of mass cultural media….There
arises a need for an art whose force would be a technique armed with apparatus and
14
Dawn Ades, Photomontage Revised & Enlarged edition Thames & Hudson 1986 p63
15
Here I paraphrase author Dawn Ades, Photomontage Revised & Enlarged edition Thames & Hudson
1986 p.63 L22-26
16
Brandon Taylor, Collage: The Making of Modern Art, Thames & Hudson 2006 p89
10

chemistry MEETING THE STANDARDS OF SOCIALIST INDUSTRY.
Photomontage has turned out to be such an art.”17
Klutsis also claimed to be the first to make ‘militant’, ‘political’ photomontages, which
he says were “created on the soil of the Soviet Union.”18
The first work of this kind to
appear in the USSR was Dynamic City (fig 5) in about 1919 -20.19
It was as in much of
Klutsis’ work, based on the avant garde Suprematist movement; Suprematism was an
offshoot of Futurism (which had evolved from Cubism) and was rooted in architectural
design, focusing upon perspectives and tones of abstract geometric forms.20
Its originator Kazimir Malevich argued in his essay ‘From Cubism and Futurism to
Suprematism’, that such geometric design should be based:
“not on the interrelation of form and colour, and not on the aesthetic basis of beauty in
composition, but on the basis of weight, speed and the direction of movement.”21
The author Dawn Ades states in Photomontage, that the composition allures to a
“Communist world of the future under construction, a new world is being built.”22
Furthermore, she explains:
“The introduction of photographs transforms what was in
Suprematist terms a symbolic message couched in comparatively abstruse ‘non-
objective’ terms, into a relatively accessible image.” 23
This is what makes Klutsis’ photomontage style stand apart from that of fellow
Constructivists Lissitzky & Rodchenko; he prefers to express his utopian ideals through a
combination of photographic image juxtaposed upon formulaic abstract designs, this
17
Quoted by Bojko Szymon, New Graphic Design in Revolutionary Russia (London, 1972) p. 21
18
Quoted by Raoul Hausmann, Courier Dada. op. cit. p.49, author’s translation
Paris, 1958
19
See Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Revised & Enlarged edition, (Thames & Hudson 1986) p.67
20
SeeVictor Margolin, The Struggle for Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy 1917-1946 p.32
21
Kazmir Malevich, “From Cubism to Futurism to Suprematism,” in K.S. Malevich, Essays on Art 1915-
1928, vol.1, ed. Troels Anderson (Copenhagen: Borgen, 1971), p.24
22
Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Revised & Enlarged edition, (Thames & Hudson 1986) p.67 L24-5
23
Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Revised & Enlarged edition, (Thames & Hudson 1986) p.67 L25-8
11

interaction between the two creating an extra dimension of reality as you can see in The
Electrification of the Entire Country (fig 6). Lissitzky on the other hand, strives for a
more ‘ground level’ approach in showing Russian construction. His montage for the 10th
edition of USSR in Construction (fig 7) which was published in 1932, continues with the
12

Figure 5 Gustav Klutsis Dynamic City 1919-20
Figure 6 (left)
Gustav Klutsis The Electrification of the Entire
Country 1920
Figure 7 El Lissitzky, montage from USSR in
Construction, no.10, 1932
13

Figure 8 Gustav Klutsis, Figure 9 Alexander Rodchenko
Photomontage for a special edition of The Crisis 1923
Molodaya gwardya 1924
same cinematic style as in seen in his photofrieze for the International Press Exhibition in
Cologne in 1928; in his double page spread, (fig 7) Lissitzky paints an intimate, even
heroic portrait of the workers who face this Herculean task of constructing the new
14

Russia; the sheer magnitude of this is etched clearly upon both their faces, as they gaze in
apparent astonishment at the ever increasing scale of industrialisation in their horizon.
The labour itself, is not shown in any way which could be construed as ‘idealized’ or
glamorous, as a workhorse can be seen descending a steep hill of rubble in the
foreground. This suggests that these are perhaps not the easiest of terrains to navigate
heavy loads across & fairly dangerous one would imagine. Overall, the montage exhorts
the spirit of the Soviet workforce in their building of ‘utopia’ from the bottom upwards.
Klutsis prefers to show Russian construction in a more simplified, symbolised manner.
He delivers his message in more deliberate and I must say, dispassionate fashion; in both
The Electrification of the Entire Country (fig 6) and his photomontage for the special
edition of Molodaya gwardya, (fig 8) Lenin is the focal point: it is he who is really the
‘grand constructor’ of the new nation, and so it is he who takes full acclaim therefore.
Furthermore, he (Klutsis) makes the efforts of the workers appear minimal in
comparison, for in Electrification of the Entire Country the miniscule & anonymous
worker (and why it is only a single worker is not clear) is completely dwarfed by the
colossal figure of Lenin, who is carrying a large building construction; the visual
language is important in this composition as is it also in Dynamic City, since:
“…the Communist world of the future is under construction, a new world is being built
(the circle = the globe)” according to Dawn Ades.24
Likewise, in his montage for the special edition of Molodaya gwardya (fig 8) Klutsis
shape edits photographs of the masses into restricted triangular forms, the diagonal
composition culminating in Lenin taking centre prominence upon his podium.
Alexander Rodchenko’s photomontage differs also, in that he incorporates a slap-stick
humour into such work as The Crisis, (fig 9) which on the other hand causes it to lack
authoritativeness present in both Lissitzky and Klutisis’ socio- political photomontages;
this fits less well into the Constructivist mindset of forging a utopian reality through
visual means, in comparison with the other two artists.
The realization of photomontage as a medium for visual propaganda was not just the
preserve of Communist Russia, for many of Europe’s fascist nations also followed suit.
The prominent themes within the Constructivist photomontage posters were centred on
24
Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Revised & Enlarged edition, (Thames & Hudson 1986) p.67
15

the ‘cult’ of the personalities of Stalin and Lenin, under which is the unwavering
solidarity of the loyal masses; these are the same themes which are incorporated into
graphic designer Alexander Schawinsky’s Year XII of Fascist Era (fig 10), with
Mussolini shown to be the ‘embodiment’ of a the nation, with the superimposing of a
photograph of the masses upon his body. The ink dot pattern of Mussolini’s photograph
suggests that Schawinsky relied upon mass produced source material; the implication is
that in attempting to avoid the election poster being labelled as ‘aesthetic’, Schawinsky is
effectively making the statement that the work is anti-bourgeoisie, thus more readily
accessible to average people on a grander scale. In referring to mass production, he is
also highlighting the technology of mass production and economic potential.
The inclusion of the large typography, an affirmative ‘SI’, implies that it is morally
imperative to vote Fascist; juxtaposition of photographs (in the body of the type) of
marching bands offset against ancient architecture, is suggestive of the movement’s
rather romanticised view of Italy’s ancient legacy and its desire to restore this militaristic
pomp & ceremony once again.
In much the same way that the Constructivists encapsulated an ideological zeal for future
industrial expansion, Paul Citroën’s Metropolis photomontage series is also highly
visionary. Citroën had been a student of Weimar Bauhaus and had been in contact with
Berlin Dada, states author Dawn Ades.25
She further claims that his Metropolis montage
(fig 11) may have been the inspiration for Fritz Lang’s film by the same name in 1926.
In this montage, minute figures of people are almost lost in the vastness of this urban
jungle; buildings and structures overlap incessantly and chaotically in angled proportions.
Ades describes there being a “dizzying space” in Citroën’s Metropolis montages and
certainly, one does feel as if they are peering into an inhospitable labyrinth; the artist in
crafting this ‘dystopian’ world, affirms his own standpoint that this future is anything but
an ideal one.
25
Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Revised and Enlarged Edition, (Thames & Hudson 1986) p99
16

Figure 10 Alexander (Xanti) Schawinsky
Year XII of Fascist Era 1934
96.5 × 66.5 cm
17

Figure 11 Paul Citroën, Metropolis 1923
18

The Art of Protest
At the concluding of the First World War, avant garde movements all across main land
central Europe responded to what they perceived to be the injustices of the conflict, none
more so than the Berlin Dadaists. They adopted photomontage as a ‘key medium’ states
author M.W. Marien, and although it remains unclear who decided this & why, “…it
seems that Hannah Höch and (Raoul) Hausmann were two of the earliest Dadaists to
make such images.”26
It members, who also included Max Ernst, George Grosz and John Heartfield, were
embittered intellectuals looking for a means to channel their angst towards: the corrupted
politics of the Weimar government; their disgust with the immorality and unnecessary
bloodshed of the First World War; the bourgeois art scene and its lust for aestheticism.27
As Dietmar Elger puts it:
“Dada was not exclusively an artistic, literary, musical,
political or philosophical movement…it was all of these and at the same time the
opposite: anti-artistic, provocatively literary, playfully musical, radically political
but anti-parliamentary.”28
The tone which the Berlin Dadaists employed in their photomontages was one of satire.
This is unequivocally evident in Hausmann’s The Art Critic, (fig 12) where the head of
the subject (a bourgeois art critic) is deliberately distorted, with the features of the eyes &
mouth both replaced with humorous collaged drawings; Hausmann is mocking the art
critic, the oversized head, sagging eyes, rasping mouth, along with the over-sized
drawing pen, (which he is holding) all combining to shatter any notions of social
respectability; this is further brought into question with what looks very much like a
banknote sticking out from the back of his collar, “a bribe perhaps” says Elger.29
26
Mary Warner Marien, Photography a Cultural History, (Laurence King Publishing 2002) 247
27
Dietmar Elger, Dadaism (TASCHEN, 2006) p.18
28
Dietmar Elger, Dadaism (TASCHEN, 2006) p.6, lines 10-13
29
Dietmar Elger, Dadaism (TASCHEN, 2006) p.36
20

Figure 12 Raoul Hausmann, The Art Critic 1919/20
Collage, 31.4 × 25.1 cm
21

Fig 13 Hannah Höch, Incision with the Dada Kitchen Knife through Germany’s
Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch 1920
Collage 114 × 90 cm
22

Hannah Höch’s collage titled, Incision with the Dada Kitchen Knife through Germany’s
Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch, (fig 13) made in 1920 for the first International
Dada fair, was intended to be a ‘snap-shot of the year’ in the view of Dietmar Elger.30
The exhibit he goes on to explain, “depicts a situation of upheaval, chaos and
contradiction.” Compositionally, it is elaborately laden with bizarre mal-formed figures,
mechanical objects (representing the inner working of the state), along with recognisable
figure heads of state (Weimar politicians and Kaiser Wilhelm II for example), which all
makes for a highly anarchic view of Weimar Germany; what we are looking at is a
society falling apart on itself, a society that has lost its cultural sanity.
In both of these Dadaist works, the acquisition of photographs from mass produced
source material, best allows the practitioner to stamp their own beliefs & values upon
reality itself; they are able to surgically redefine what is real within a recontextualised
and paradoxical framework. On the subject of reality and the photographic image, the
photographer Susan Sontag had this to say:
“Photography does not simply reproduce the real, it recycles it-a key procedure of a
modern society. In the form of photographic images, things and events are put to
new uses, assigned new meanings, which go beyond the distinctions between the
beautiful and the ugly, the true and the false, the useful and the useless, good taste
and bad.”31
At this point I think it important, in light of this discussion on the ‘special’ relationship
between photographic imagery and reality, to also mention the raw and potent work of
artists who have not made use of photomontage technique. Is Pablo Picasso’s painting
Guernica, (fig 14) which echoes the carnage and horror of the German aerial bombing of
the Spanish town of Guernica in 1937, in anyway less emotive for its lack of
photographic reference to the atrocity? I ask also the same question of Goya’s Disasters
of War illustrations (fig 15 & 16), which all too graphically document and capture the
brutality of the forces of French ‘puppet king’ Joseph Bonaparte, in dealing with the
30
Dietmar Elger, Dadaism (TASCHEN, 2006) p. 44
31
Jessica Evans & Stuart Hall, Visual Culture (SAGE Publications 1999)
See Susan Sontag’s chapter titled The Image World, p.91
23

Figure 14 Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937
Figure 15 Francisco Goya
What more can one do? 1863
Etching from ‘The Disasters
of War’ series
Figure 16 Francisco Goya
Nothing. We shall see 1863
Etching from ‘The Disasters
of War’ series
24

Spanish nationalist insurrection.32
The series consisting of a set of 83 plates, account of
the horrors which Goya himself had borne witness to; there are vivid recreations of
scenes of execution, torture, mutilation, the disposing of corpses, amidst unrelenting
human suffering.
Certainly from the Dadaist perspective and Marxist perspective, Picasso’s Guernica is
just the kind of gallery based, aesthetic bourgeois high art for which they were so
vehemently against. This tension between painters and photomontage artists/ designers
existed in Soviet Russia, where it was eventually decided that painting or ‘pure art’
“could go no further as a revolutionary practice” according to Victor Margolin. The
scientific approach was instead favoured, incorporating the technology of photography
into Social Realist ‘production art’.33
Arguably, it can be said that actually, both Goya’s Disasters of War and Picasso’s
Guernica are ‘accessible’ to a mainstream audience, because of the historically
monumental events they chose to represent; their artistic responses to these despicable
atrocities are surely no less valid than that of a vocalised opinion?
I now turn attention to the political photomontages of John Heartfield, himself a brief
member of Berlin Dada and a man who bravely attacked the barbarity of Nazi Germany
in his scathing work. He had become a member of the German Communist Party in 1919,
“Year One of Dada” commented Raoul Hausmann.34
Once Berlin Dada had finally
been extinguished, “Hausmann effectively quit making photomontages, Höch being the
only one besides Heartfield to continue” explains author Douglas Kahn; he continues on
to say that “montage became intertwined with documentary and reportage” within left
modernism, of which Heartfield was part.”35
It was his photomontages for the Communist magazine the Workers Illustrated Paper,
AIZ in short, for which he became synonymous. It’s readership in 1929 was broken down
into 42% skilled workers, 33% unskilled, 10% clerks, 5% youth, 3.5% housewives, 3%
32
Philip Hofer, The Disasters of War By Francisco Goya (Dover Publications 1967) p.1
33
(University of Chicago Press 1997) p.81-83
34
Hausmann is quoted by author Douglas Kahn, John Heartfield Art & Mass Media
(TANAM PRESS, New York 1985) p.30
35
Douglas Kahn John Heartfield Art & Mass Media (TANAM PRESS, New York 1985) p.108
25

professionals, 2% self-employed, 1% civil servants, and although distribution outside of
Germany was in German speaking regions, it did also reach out to Vancouver,
Montevideo, Sydney and Tokyo according to Kahn.36
The task of AIZ was straightforward: provide the masses with Socialist truth, a truth so
suppressed by the ruling powers of the state. Illustrated magazines of the state were
frowned upon by Bertolt Brecht, who in 1931 said:
“…photography in the hands of the bourgeoisie, has become a terrible weapon
against the truth. The vast amount of pictured material that is being disgorged daily
by the press and that that seems to have the character of truth serves in reality only
to obscure the facts…The task of A-I-Z, which is to restore the truth…”37
An example of one Heartfield’s AIZ covers, published in September 1933 and just short
of one full year of Hitler’s coming to power, (see fig 17) features the blood spattered
figure of Herman Goering holding an axe; to his left the text reads: “Goering, The
Executioner of the Third Reich.” The theme of violence and savage brutality of National
Socialism is brought to the fore, as it in a November issue from 1933 (fig 18) with the
juxtaposition of Julius Streicher, editor of racist anti-Semitic magazine Der Stürmer, next
to a savagely murdered corpse; Heartfield effectively portrays Hitler’s henchmen as
psychopathic gangsters with an obsession for killing. The juxtaposing of the axe with
Goering and likewise, the scene of a brutal murder with Streicher, powerfully displays
the potency of recontextualization using photographic images.
An important factor, key to Heartfield’s gaining of public awareness was that he was
prepared to use photographs from the ‘accepted’ mainstream illustrated magazines. By
doing do so, “photographs appearing in their (magazines of the state) pages could be
entertained as being the future or past object of Heartfield’s anonymous machinations,”
36
37
Quoted in Douglas Kahn John Heartfield Art & Mass Media (TANAM PRESS, New York 1985) p.64
26

Fig 18 John Heartfield
“A pan-Germanist”
AIZ, November 1933
Fig 17 John Heartfield
Goering: “The Third Reich’s Executioner”
AIZ, September 1933
says Kahn.38
This was in the Dadaist tradition of consuming, then ‘regurgitating’ images
from mass produced sources back upon the state & society, in a counter attacking
fashion.
38
27

In using photographic reference from National Socialist approved publications, Heartfield
was able to ‘surgically’ alter them, thus rendering them ‘socially unacceptable’ in his
photomontages.
Heartfield could be incredibly varied in how made his visual commentaries concerning
the totalitarian Nazi state. For example, there is the apocalyptic Death sowing his seeds:
(fig 19) “Everywhere in the country where Death passes, he harvests hunger, war and
fire.” in 1937. At other times he is employing Dada style satirical humour in mocking
Hitler, in montages such as “A tool in the hand of God? A toy in the hand of Thyssen!”
(fig 20), which refers in ironic twist to industrialist Fritz Thyssen (pictured) financially
backing Hitler’s rise to power.39
Hitler is shown to be the puppet or ‘plaything’ of the
bourgeoisie elite, to Heartfield’s disgust. Furthermore, Hitler, Goering & Goebbels are
portrayed as incompetent, circus-act like buffoons walking a tightrope, in “The Wise
Kings (fig 21) in a Troubled Land.” (1935) Again, Heartfield recycles existing Nazi
propaganda photographs, subverting them in this montage format, so that the mythology
or ‘cult’ of the Fuhrer is practically torn apart before the viewer’s eyes.
Heartfield decides also in many of his political photomontages, to take quotes or even
sayings from the speeches of the regimes’ most prominent figures and convert them into
literal imagery. The quotes are ‘recycled’ as it were, but visualised, which conveys the
vile absurdity of the Nazi mindset. The October 1935 cover edition of AIZ (fig 22) is a
fine example of this. The caption, a quote by Josef Goebbels, offers a ludicrous solution
to the ending of food shortages in the country: “What? No butter or lard? Well then, eat
your Jews!” The image Heartfield constructs hereof, acts as an ironic punch line, but
Goebbels himself is the joke, buttressing a view that he and his fellow Nazi espousers
should not be taken seriously by the public. What is quite clear is that the human figure is
posed; Heartfield did like to have his own photographs produced, and in many cases
would have friends volunteer having their pictures taken in certain postures. This is cited
39
John Willet Heartfield versus Hitler ( Hazan Edition, Paris 1997) p.129
28

Figure 19 John Heartfield Figure 20 John Heartfield (above)
Death sowing his seeds: “A tool in the hand of God? A toy in
“Everywhere in the country where hand of Thyssen!” September 1933
Death passes, he harvests hunger,
war and fire.” April 1937
Figure 21 John Heartfield (right)
“The Wise Kings in a Troubled Land”
January 1935
29

Fig 22 John
Heartfield
“What? No butter or
lard? Well then, eat your Jews!”
October 1935
30

Figure 23 John Heartfield
Figures posing in original
photograph.
Figure 24 John
Heartfield,
Book cover for Macht
Man Dollars by Upton Sinclair
1931
by Richard Hollis in Graphic Design-A Concise History,
who provides a photographic example (fig 23) of his
friends posing on scaffolding for what later became a book
cover, titled So Macht man Dollars, (fig 24) in which they are ‘transformed’ into
capitalists climbing a dollar sign.40
Being a member of the Soviet Writers, it was difficult for Heartfield since montage was a
part of left modernism (which represented literature & theatre according to D. Kahn) and
the anti-modernist left held more sway. Fortunately for Heartfield, George Lukacs the
“theoretical adjudicator of communist anti-modernism” explains Kahn, showed leniency
towards photomontage as a documentary practice.41
In fact, Lukacs recognised the true strengths of the medium:
40
See Richard Hollis, Graphic Design –A Concise History (Thames & Hudson World of Art, London 2001)
p. 61
41
Douglas Kahn, John Heartfield Art And Mass Media (TANAM PRESS, New York 1985) p.108
31

“In montage’s original form as photomontage, it is capable of striking effects and
on occasion it can even become a powerful political weapon. Such effects arise
from its technique of juxtaposing hetero-geneous, unrelated pieces of reality torn
from their context. A good photomontage has the same effect as a good joke.”42
The Nationalist Socialist regime sought to ‘root out’ Communist and Socialist opposition
publications through its Reich Press Chamber, one of Seven Chambers of the larger
Reich Chamber of Culture, which was set up in law in September 22nd
1933.43
This
however did not prevent Heartfield from continuing to produce his political
photomontages for AIZ when in exile in Prague; he was also highly indebted to the loyal
members of the KPD (German Communist Party) who acted as an effective support
network. Heartfield called them “Brave underground fighters from the Reich [who]
took copies over the border and so, the montages were even distributed in the big cities of
the Fascist barbarians…”44
On the subject of freedom of expression in art, I believe that the critical thoughts of
cultural theorist Herbert Marcuse tie in with the scenario of that faced by John Heartfield.
Marcuse an advocate of aestheticism in the study of society, comments in his book The
Aesthetic Dimension:
“The autonomy of art reflects the unfreedom of individuals in the unfree society. If
people were free, then art would be the form and expression of their freedom. Art
remains marked by unfreedom: in contradicting it, art achieves its autonomy.”45
The final Photomontage creation of Heartfield I would like to discuss is ‘Hurray the
Butter is all gone!’ (fig 25) from 1935. The title caption according to authors and
historians John Hite & Chris Hinton, was from a speech by Herman Goering, who said of
the regime’s sole economic gearing for war: “would you rather have butter or guns? Shall
42
George Lukacs, “Realism in the Balance,” in Ernst Bloch , et al., Aesthetics and Politics. London, 1977
43
Oron J. Hale, THE Captive Press In the Third Reich, (Princeton University Press 1973) p. 90
44
Heartfield quoted in Siepmann, ibid, also Douglas Kahn John Heartfield Art And Mass Media (TANAM
PRESS, New York 1985) p.91
45
Herbert Marcuse, The Aesthetic Dimension (THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD, London 1979) p.72-73
32

we bring in lard or iron ore? I tell you, guns make us powerful. Butter only makes us
fat.”46
Heartfield supplies a heavy irony to this montage, an intentional over-exaggeration
of an ideologically fervent Nazi household; the wallpaper is patterned with emblems of
the Swastika, with a proud portrait of the Fuhrer hanging from its wall as a centre piece;
the family are dressed in a way which is telling of their lower working class status, and a
cushion cover can be seen with an embroidery of Hindenburg, illustrating their serf-like
respect for the establishment. ‘Hurray, the Butter is all gone!’ works on numerous levels:
firstly, in this literal visualization of a working class family consuming weaponry &
armaments, Heartfield makes Goering’s speech appear crass in the most extreme way
possible, through recontextualization; weapons and food are ‘merged’ into one to create a
hybrid meaning. Secondly, the family demonstrate their blind obedience to Hitler’s Nazi
Party in carrying out the action of the recontextualization; the ridiculousness of what
they’re doing is a clever platform for Heartfield to engage with the German audience
directly, warning of the ‘Nazification’ of every aspect of their lives and of the subservient
role they are expected to follow under this regime. It is a disquieting message
46
Quoted in John Hite & Chris Hinton, Weimar & Nazi Germany, (Murray 2000) p. 221
33

Figure 25 John Heartfield ‘Hurray, the Butter is all gone!’ 1935
Photomontage 38.7 × 27.3 cm
in this context, ‘Hurray, the Butter is all gone!’ passing a damning judgement upon a
government that had little, if any respect for its people’s welfare.
34

If we move forward by twenty two years, we can see these same style and visual
approach being employed by the artist Richard Hamilton, with his 1957 collage titled
‘Just What is it That Makes today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?’ (fig 26). Just as
the subject in ‘Hurray, the Butter is all gone!’, was about how people were being duped
into living their lives according to a false ideology, Hamilton’s work also follows that
very same premise; in the case of ‘Just What is it That Makes today’s Homes So
Different, So Appealing?’, American consumerist living, is to Hamilton, what
Nazification of everyday life was to Heartfield. It is also set in a home, an American
home of the 50’s adorned with paraphernalia and modern appliances of the period.
Similarly with Heartfield’s photomontage, Hamilton’s interior communicates this
consumer culture: upon the wall there lies an historical photograph of either a President
or politician, representing American nationalism; next to that is a large framed magazine
cover titled Young Romance, a comic book style illustration of an apparently older man
comforting a younger woman. This exudes a patronising patriarchal attitude, particularly
as in the caption the man expresses to her unashamedly, “we’ve got to keep our love a
secret Marge…I’d lose my job if the boss found out about us! After all, I’m engaged to
his daughter! That’s why I have to sneak away to see you!” This ethos of female
subordination continues in the form of the two unclothed figures in pose; a man with the
physique of a body builder stands proudly (asserting his male dominance) whilst the
woman (presumably his wife) seated further out of picture, appears to fit in as one of the
objects surrounding her; she is wearing a hat, although it looks much like a lampshade,
and she further objectifies herself as a mere object of male desire by caressing her breast.
The general picture space is akin to a television commercial of how American homes
should look; a woman is seen hoovering a set of stairs, as an arrow points with the
message ‘ordinary cleaners reach only this far’.
The worlds of reality and popular mass culture are blurred, making it difficult to ascertain
whether the two nude figures are really in ‘their’ home; a woman seen on television using
a telephone gazes almost knowingly at the male figure.
35

Figure 26 Richard Hamilton ‘Just What is it That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So
Appealing?’ 1957 Collage, 26×25cm
The American left wing activist and artist Martha Rosler also used photomontage as an
emotive tool, to open the American public’s eyes to horrors of the war in Vietnam during
36

the 1960’s. The series of works of which all came under the title ‘Bringing the War
Home’: House Beautiful: Vietnam’ (fig’s 27, 28 & 29) literally did that, they brought the
suffering of Vietnamese people into comfortable, spacious and leisurely American
homes. The juxtaposition of these figures upon such contrasting backgrounds makes the
statement that these worlds are not separate as we may so believe.
In a conversation with Benjamin Buchloh, Rosler explained that she was a part of the
‘New Left’, e.g. student activism: “I was, indeed. It was really the Vietnam War that
pushed me decisively to the left, but in my mid-teens I was already involved with civil
rights and antinuclear protests.”47
Just how effective are images such as these in affecting people’s opinions? The writer
Marshall McLuhan said this of the Vietnam War in the Montreal Gazette, May 1976:
“Television brought the brutality of the war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam
was lost in the living rooms of America-not the battlefield of Vietnam.”48
47
Martha Rosler: Positions in the Life World, edited by Catherine de Zegher (Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1999) p. 22
48
Anthony Jay, Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (Oxford University Press 1999) p.234
37

Figure 27 Martha Rosler
From Bringing the War Home:
House Beautiful: Vietnam series
Figure 28 Martha Rosler, Figure 29 Martha Rosler,
from Bringing the War Home: from Bringing the War Home:
House Beautiful: Vietnam series House Beautiful: Vietnam series
Chapter 3
A Force Still Today?
38

“Are images the terrain on which political struggle should be waged, the site on which
new ethics is to be articulated?”49
W.J.T. Mitchell
As I have discussed in the latter half of the last chapter, the political photomontages of
John Heartfield have inspired a knock-on effect of similar style work, by artists much
later on. A current practitioner who has certainly continued on the tradition is Peter
Kennard, who himself claims, “…my work is obviously related to the pioneering
photomontages of John Heartfield from the 19230’s.”50
Like Heartfield, Kennard also appreciates the power of political photomontage in its
ability to cut through lies, and ascertain brutal realities through recontextualization;
“The point of my work is to use these easily recognisable iconic images, but to
render them unacceptable. To break down the image of the all-powerful missile, in
order to represent the power of millions of people who are actually trying to break
them.”51
His anti-war, anti-nuclear posters which he has produced on behalf of the CND, are
notable for always being in black & white, never in colour; it serves in its purpose of
making them incredibly unnerving, for subjects like nuclear disarmament, are ‘black &
white’ issues. Kennard creates highly fatalistic images which attempt to sharply draw the
viewer out of their comfort zone, and face the chilling reality that mankind must act now
before its too late in the future. Figure 30 & 31 demonstrate the visual techniques for this
49
W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want? The Lives & Loves of Images (University of Chicago Press,
2005) p.32
50
Peter Kennard, IMAGES for the END of the CENTURY-PHOTOMONTAGE EQUATIONS (Journeyman
Press London 1990) see ‘Afterword’ paragraphs 16-17
51
Again, see ‘Afterword’, paragraph 15
39

Figure 30 Peter Kennard
Untitled poster Figure 31
Peter Kennard
Untitled
poster
40

Figure 32 Peter Kennard Untitled Poster
all too clearly; figure 30 (untitled) captures the precarious situation of the entire world,
caught in the danger of the Cold War. The multitude of nuclear missiles look as if the
may slip out from the gasmask at any moment, which only adds to the high anxiety of
41

possible Armageddon. Likewise, figure 31 (untitled) is a haunting photomontage and a
direct warning aimed at the United Nations; the UN international symbol sits at the
bottom of the sand timer (which is almost out of time) and the ominous figure of a
skeletal head above that, is a dire warming to the organization that its time to act is
running out.
Kennard as he has mentioned, does not only play to the audiences’ fears, but also
attempts to ‘empower’ them visually as one can see in fig 32 (untitled), whereby a human
fist is witnessed ‘breaking’ a nuclear missile; this practice of ‘destroying’ a image of such
magnitude and power, is a balancing of the ‘light’ (hope & human solidarity and
international action) against the ‘dark’ (remaining passive in the face of an ominous
nuclear threat).
In this debate of whether photomontage remains to be still an effective voice of social
commentary, there is an argument that is perhaps not. This challenge to the medium
comes from the illustration work of Olivier Kugler, who produces intimate documentary
drawings of the many interesting people and places he has visited around the world. His
distinctively loose drawings are scanned and coloured digitally, resulting stunning and
realistic reproductions of the places of his travels, and, he even confesses to having an
interest in photojournalism.52
Kugler a regular contributor to the Guardian, has visually
documented countless people and faces in his drawings, as and as he proves in his
illustration for The Guardian’s Shanghai special G2 supplement, titled Mr Ren’s bicycle
repair shop, (fig 33) he will explore his subject to great depth; this will include their
surroundings, belongings, the clothes they are wearing and more besides
It’s not to say that this medium is always appropriate for every situation. Would Kugler’s
work be effective if used to highlight serious world issues, as in the case of Kennard?
52
Angus Hyland, The Picture Book, contemporary Illustration (Laurence King Publishing, London 2006)
p.64
42

Figure 33 Olivier Kugler Mr Ren’s bicycle repair shop
Illustration for The Guardian’s Shanghai special in its G2 supplement magazine
I doubt so, for the simple reason that drawings are far too subjective in this regard. What
I mean by this is that if you were to design an antinuclear weapons poster a using
drawing technique, the vital message of the poster could be lost in its aestheticism; an
43

illustration may only serve in ‘simplifying’ or even trivialising such an important
message. Photographs and only photographs can make or destroy an image with a
complete totality maintained Susan Sontag, when she said “Cameras are the antidote and
the disease, a means of appropriating reality and a means of making it obsolete.”53
Photomontage is still very much alive and kicking within current editorial illustration in
the mainstream media. The German illustrator/ graphic designer Dettmer Otto,
incorporates photographic elements into his work in the form of silk-screen prints.
Interestingly, he admitted in a talk which he gave to Illustration students at the University
of Westminster on December 4th
2007 that his main inspirations had been the
photomontages of the Russian Constructivists El Lissitzky and Gustav Klutsis. He
demonstrates the effectiveness of combining photographic images in his editorial
illustration for The Economist (fig 34) published on September 6th
2007. It is for an article
explaining about the expanding of new power stations in the USA, and he based his
image on the key words “nuclear renaissance.”54
His two self promotion illustrations for the 2006 AOI annual Orpheus (fig 35) and
Hunger (fig 36) bear the hallmarks of Constructivism in their design approach. They are
much closer in relation to Klutsis’ more symbolised and geometric stylisation. Likewise,
Otto seems less interested in the aesthetic quality of the images, but more with the
message which his trying to effectively convey.
Finally, another editorial illustration which I feel successfully works as a social
commentary, is by the illustrator Martin O’Neil and for an article in The Guardian’s
Guide supplement. The article of the 19th
January by Sian Thatcher, comments upon
various Christian websites’ view that they find many ‘innocent’ movies for children to be
immoral. O’Neil’s illustration (fig 37) does what the article intends in making mockery of
the ‘nannying’ reaction of the various outraged Christian websites; they are represented
53
Jessica Evans & Stuart Hall Visual Culture (Sage Publications, London 1999) p.93
54
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9762843
44

Figure 34 Dettmer Otto editorial image for The Economist,
September 6th
2007
Figure 35 Dettmer Otto Orpheus Figure 36 Dettmer Otto Hunger
self promotion from Images 30 self promotion from Images 30
45

Figure 37 Martin O’Neil, editorial illustration for Sian Thatcher article dated
January 2008-01-19 in The Guardian supplement, the Guide
by a hand emanating from a television screen, which is about to show a movie to two
young children. Again, I think that photomontage serves this type of article topic well,
because it able to convey the Christian paternalism in action, when it may have been
more difficult to express in any other medium.
46

From the research which I have gathered and in the many points I have made along the
way, I now feel inclined to believe that photomontage still remains an effective voice of
social commentary. Furthermore, I would say also that as a technique that thrives on
recycling mass produced photographic imagery, it is the best equipped to provide an
‘alternative’ viewpoint; it can in fact, take icons, ideologies, customs etc, all of which
gain status through photographic reproduction and circulation, and break them down
through the same process; an example of this would no doubt be George Heartfield’s
destruction of the Fuhrer myth. It is a technique which can make visually possible what
would be impossible in the physical world, such as the crushing of a nuclear missile in
the clenched fist of one’s hand or the construction of the future.
Bibliography
Douglas Kahn, John Heartfield Art and Mass Media, Tanam Press, New York 1985
48

Richard Hollis Graphic Design A Concise History, Thames & Hudson world of art, 2001
Victor Margolin, The Struggle For Utopia: Rodchenko, Lissitzky, Moholy-Nagy 1917-
1946 University of Chicago Press 1997
Donald Treadgold, Twentieth Century Russia 6th edition ed. (Boulder: Westview Press,
1987)
Dawn Ades, Photomontage revised & enlarged edition Thames & Hudson 1986
Brandon Taylor, Collage, The Making Of Modern Art, Thames & Hudson, paperback
edition 2006
Bojko Szymon, New Graphic Design in Revolutionary Russia (London, 1972)
Courier Dada author’s translation Paris, 1958
Kazmir Malevich, “From Cubism to Futurism to Suprematism,” in K.S. Malevich,
Essays on Art 1915-1928, vol.1, ed. Troels Anderson (Copenhagen: Borgen, 1971)
Mary Warner Marien, Photography a Cultural History, (Laurence King Publishing 2002)
Dietmar Elger, Dadaism (TASCHEN, 2006)
Jessica Evans & Stuart Hall, Visual Culture (SAGE Publications 1999)
Philip Hofer, The Disasters of War By Francisco Goya (Dover Publications 1967)
John Willet Heartfield versus Hitler ( Hazan Edition, Paris 1997)
George Lukacs, “Realism in the Balance,” in Ernst Bloch , et al., Aesthetics and Politics.
London, 1977
Oron J. Hale, THE Captive Press In the Third Reich, (Princeton University Press 1973)
Herbert Marcuse, The Aesthetic Dimension (THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD, London
1979)
John Hite & Chris Hinton, Weimar & Nazi Germany, (Murray 2000)
Martha Rosler: Positions in the Life World, edited by Catherine de Zegher (Ikon Gallery,
Birmingham 1999)
Anthony Jay, Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (Oxford University Press 1999)
49

W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want? The Lives & Loves of Images (University of
Chicago Press, 2005)
Peter Kennard, IMAGES for the END of the CENTURY-PHOTOMONTAGE
EQUATIONS (Journeyman Press London 1990)
Angus Hyland, The Picture Book, contemporary Illustration (Laurence King Publishing,
London 2006)
Image References
Figure 1 Lissitzy –USSR in Construction, issue 10, Cover page, 1932
Victor Margolin The Struggle For Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy p.173
Figure 2 Lissitzky –‘The Current is switched on’ USSR in Construction issue 10 1932
50

Victor Margolin The Struggle For Utopia: Rodchenko Lissitzky Moholy-Nagy p.178
Figure 3 ‘The Task of the Press is the Education of the Masses ‘Photofrieze for the
International Press Exhibition, Cologne 1928 3.8 × 23.5 metres, Brandon Taylor,
Collage The Making of Modern Art, p.86
Figure 4 Millions of Workers Take Part in Socialist Competition 1927-28
Brandon Taylor, Collage The Making of Modern Art, p.88
Figure 5 Gustav Klutsis Dynamic City 1919-20 Dawn Ades Photomontage, p.67
Figure 6 Gustav Klutsis The Electrification of the Entire Country 1920, Dawn Ades
Photomontage p.70
Figure 7 El Lissitzky, montage from USSR in Construction, no.10, 1932, Dawn Ades
Photomontage p.96
Figure 8 Gustav Klutsis, Photomontage for a special edition of Molodaya gwardya 1924
Dawn Ades Photomontage p.71
Figure 9 Alexander Rodchenko The Crisis 1923, Dawn Ades Photomontage, p.72
Figure 10 Alexander (Xanti) Schawinsky Year XII of Fascist Era 1934
96.5 × 66.5 cm, Alston W. Purvis & Martijn F. Le Coultre, Graphic Design 2Oth
Century, p.226
Figure 11 Paul Citroën, Metropolis 1923, Dawn Ades Photomontage, p.98
Figure 12 Raoul Hausmann, The Art Critic 1919/20, Collage, 31.4 × 25.1 cm, Dietmar
Elger, Dadaism, p.37
Figure 13 Hannah Höch, Incision with the Dada Kitchen Knife through Germany’s Last
Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch 1920 Collage 114 × 90 cm, Dietmar Elger, Dadaism,
p.45
Figure 14 Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937, John Berger The Success & Failure of Picasso,
p.164-65
Figure 15 Francisco Goya What more can one do? 1863
Etching from ‘The Disasters of War’ p.33
Figure 16 Francisco Goya Nothing. We shall see 1863 Etching from ‘The Disasters of
War’ p.69
Figure 17 John Heartfield Goering: “The Third Reich’s Executioner”
AIZ, September 1933 John Willet Heartfield versus Hitler, p.130
Figure 18 “A pan-Germanist” AIZ, November 1933 John Willet Heartfield versus
Hitler, p.135
Figure 19 Death sowing his seeds: “Everywhere in the country where Death passes, he
harvests hunger, war and fire.” April 1937 John Willet Heartfield versus Hitler, p.135
Figure 20 John Willet Heartfield versus Hitler, p129
Figure 21 “The Wise Kings in a Troubled Land” January 1935 John Willet Heartfield
versus Hitler, p149
Figure 22 “What? No butter or lard? Well then, eat your Jews!” October 1935 John
Willet Heartfield versus Hitler, p.154
Figure 23 originally posed photograph, Graphic Design A Concise History by Richard
Hollis, p.61
Figure 24 Book cover for Macht Man Dollars by Upton Sinclair 1931 John Willet
Heartfield versus Hitler, p.98
Figure 25 John Heartfield ‘Hurray, the Butter is all gone!’ 1935 Photomontage 38.7 ×
27.3 cm The 20th
Century Art Book Phaidon Press 1996, p.194
51

Figure 26 ‘Just What is it That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?’ 1957
Collage, 26×25cm Brandon Taylor, Collage The Making of Modern Art, p.161
Figure 27 from Martha Rosler: Positions in the life world p. 19
Figure 28 from Martha Rosler: Positions in the life world p. 16
Figure 29 from Martha Rosler: Positions in the life world
Figure 30 Peter Kennard Untitled poster IMAGES for the END of the CENTURY-
PHOTOMONTAGE EQUATIONS (Journeyman Press London 1990) p. 9
Figure 31 untitled from p.61 of Domesday Book by Peter Kennnard
Figure 32 untitled from p.10
Figure 33 Olivier Kugler Mr Ren’s bicycle repair shop
Illustration for The Guardian’s Shanghai special in its G2 supplement magazine, p.66-7
of The Picture Book by Angus Hyland, published by Lawrence King Publishing Ltd
Figure 34 Dettmer Otto editorial image for The Economist, September 6th
2007
Figure 35 Dettmer Otto Orpheus self promotion from Images 30 The Best of British
Contemporary Illustration 2006 AOI p.61
Figure 36 Dettmer Otto Hunger self promotion from Images 30 The Best of British
Contemporary Illustration 2006 AOI p61
Figure 37 Martin O’Neil, editorial illustration for Sian Thatcher article dated
January 2008-01-19 in The Guardian supplement, the Guide
52

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