Montage: Activity 2

Find two examples of political photomontages that are either from a historical or contemporary source.
Discuss in what context they have been produced and how effective you think they communicate their intended message.
Discuss the techniques that have been used to assemble the examples you have chosen and offer alternative ways that the artist could have put over the same message.

Photo by Peter Kennard

In the photo above, Kennard is showing part of the relationship between England and the United States. It depicts how England gives us money, which only leads to more bombs being made, even nuclear bombs, and then war and death. The main technique here is figure of speech, where the skeleton hand represents death. This could also represent the destruction of England or the greediness of the United States. By handing the U.S. money that goes toward war, England is ruining what they stand for: peace; and by accepting this money, the United States is overlooking the death they are causing. I think there might've been a better way to directly represent money using currency or war using bombs, or even representing that the U.S. was getting money, say like the hand having the flag printed onto it, but otherwise the photomontage is amazingly done.

Photo credit: https://hburtphotoskillsb.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/political-photomontage/

The context of this photomontage is to make a point about what going to war is really about. The creator wanted the view to understand that when someone joins the army, they are really just going to be fighting for land that had oil. It is a hot political debate if we went to war in the Middle East to really find weapons of mass destruction like President Bush had claimed there had been, or if it was really because of the oil there. Two of the most important techniques that are used in this montage are text and recognizing the familiar. These techniques work together to change the normal Uncle Sam recruitment poster to show this ongoing debate. Instead of "I want you for U.S. army," its words are changed to "I want you to die for oil," with a skull over Uncle Sam's face. I feel like this was a great way to edit this, and I cannot think of any way to do it better.