(THE ACID) TEST

PETER KENNARD;
Telephone Tapping (1980)

This post has been created to demonstrate my ability to select an image, save it to the computer, re-size it, and upload it to my blog. The image was initailly located at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/kennard_big4.html

I selected this image as an example of contemporary photomontage. This form is often cited as orginating just after World War I, however, the manipulation of photographs, using the following techniques; double exposures, darkroom masking, direct contact printing or photograms, has taken place since the invention of photography in the mid 19th century. This being said, the Dadaists, looking for a new means of expression, developed photomontage into a true art form.

London-born Peter Kennard was dissatisfied with painting's lack of immediacy, and as a consequence, took up photomontage for its ability to show the "unrevealed truth" behind the image. Says Kennard; " The point of my work is to use easily accessible iconic images, but to render them unacceptable. To break down the image of the all-powerful missile ... after breaking them, to show new possibilities emerging in the cracks and splintered fragments of the old reality." However, due to the rise in digital manipulations, Kennard understands the changing reception to his work in recent times. "There is a problem with montage in that you see it everywhere now because of digital technology. There is so much transformed imagery around that people accept constructed images without questioning their meaning. I think my work was losing impact because of that."