Montage, Multiple Exposure, and Movement: Experimental Photography

While traveling to Italy in June of 2024, I was fortunate enough to experience and capture the beauty of the Italian countryside. There I attended a photography workshop, hosted by The Delaura’s, a professional wedding photography couple. I worked with five other photographers and two professional models, and together we explored the island of Sardinia, Italy while simultaneously attending styled shoots. When I traveled back to Mississippi, I realized how perfect these photos would be for a series of images. Specifically, the telling of a love story, as our models, Lee and Leandro, were a couple. The love speeded through each photo, and there I found my series.

When creating the photos below, I primarily focused on the techniques of montage, multiple exposure, and movement. All of these techniques were used during the art movements Futurism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. These three methods are quite important when analyzing photograph in each of these periods. My main goal was to mesh these techniques and processes into a series of images that cohesively flowed together.

Out of thousands of images I captured, my series consists of five photos. The images tell Lee and Leandro’s love story through experimental techniques and methods. The majority of my experimental art movement research consisted of black and white film photography, but I decided to use a digital camera for these photo, however I did convert all of my final images to black and whtie so they are able to connect to my research a bit more fluidly. The series is composed of two photomontages, two double exposures, and a motion blur images. The concept of the images was to tell a love sztory through the individuals being alone, together but separate, and finally together as a whole. While exiting, I continued to keep my mind in a creative nonsensical mindset, to try and help convey the experimental concepts I had been researching.

MONTAGE

Photomontages can be made in a variety of ways, I used Photoshop to create my final pieces. For the photomontage, I chose to create busts of the couple. For both Lee and Leandro, I cut the shape of their head and neck out as a base for the piece. From there I collected serval images of them and cut bits and pieces from the multiple photos and added them strategically to the montage. Lastly, I added a dark textured background, since the majority of locations we visited were surrounded by mountains.

I decided to add a personal characteristic for each piece as well. For example, in Lee’s image I intertwined several locks of her curly hair blowing around her face. As for Leandro, the personal attribute I incorporated was his tattoos. The tattoo that stood out the most was on his neck, it spelled out “more love.” This detail added to the love story element but also was able to show his true character.

MULTIPLE EXPOSURE

The multiple exposure portion of my series took a bit more thought and effort on my part. When creating multiple exposure pieces, it is not as easy as slapping two images together, rather there has to be a strategic way in which the images are placed together to look like a finished product. My main factor was deciding what portion of the photos are important and needed to stay present and what could fade into the background. I wanted the images to portray the narrative that Lee and Leandro had not found each other yet, but were actively looking for one another.

The first double exposure I created was of the couple looking out at the ocean and the rocky mountains. The base image is Leandro standing with his back to the camera. He was posed on a grassy portion of the mountain overlooking the water. Lee’s image was placed on top; she was standing in a white dress with her back to the camera as well, looking at the mountains in front of her. The contrast between her white dress and his dark hair allowed the two photos to mesh together well. Lee takes more of the frame, while Leandro looks as if he is standing in the white of her dress.

The second double exposure depicts the couple sitting looking at the other, yet they are separated through images. Lee’s photo is the base for this double exposure; she is sitting looking to her left. Leandro’s image is placed on top; he is sitting on the rocks of a mountain also looking to his left. I flipped Leandro’s image on its head, to emphasis the longing between the couple, now they are staring at each other through images.