Photomontage can be neatly split by locations - Russia, Berlin and Paris. Each of these places held certain characteristics within their montage, influenced by the countries current context.
Russia and Constructivism
Constructivism was born out of a desire to have an art form that fits in with Marxist dialogue. To do so, photography was utilised for its cheapness and its reproducibility - no longer will artworks be expensive and institutionalised, they will be mechanically reproducible and circulated throughout the country. Osip Brik notes how photography is a more available artform; 'the cheapest painting is still more than the most expensive camera' - the painting art form has now become too intrinsically tied with bourgeoisie values, whereas photography is a clean break. To enforce this new social type of art, the artist's status is rethought to turn them from artist into engineer, at one with the workers. El Lissitzky's Self Portrait from 1924 uses montage to create overlays of graph paper, alphabet letters, shapes and a compass held in the artists hand overlaying the artists eye. There is a lot of rich imagery in this image that is suggestive of the dawn of a new era and the new status of the artist. The ending letters of the alphabet can be seen as nearing the end of the old regime, giving birth to a new art form that uses mechanical tools (a compass and graph paper) to create artworks. Having the artists face partially obscured by the hand emphasises the mechanical use of tools as opposed to the artistic touch of the artist, and brings him at one with the workers. In much the same way, Gustav Klutsis' 1930 photomontage of Let us fulfil the plan of the great projects uses the hand to symbolise a social and engaged art form. Here, the artist uses his own hand to symbolise the salute of the works, and this is repeated to create a mass affect. Instead of using his face or even acknowledging that this hand is his, it is left anonymous, leaving any worker who sees the photomontage to feel connected. Klutsis uses photomontage as an agitational political tool to try and reinforce the ideologies of the new Marxist government - this type of photomontage holds strong similarities to that of Berlin Dada, where political agitation was key, however the artists in Germany were typically used the new medium against the current government instead of for.
Berlin and Dada
In Germany's heavily capitalist society, many artists became influenced by a Marx and utilised photomontage as a political weapon against the current regime. Artists like John Heartfield, George Grosz and Hannah Hoch created photomontages that was heavily political and utilised techniques that they had learnt from their time in advertising before turning to art. As with Constructivism, this new art form eluded institutionalisation from its mass produced and proliferated status, making it another social movement. In Cut with the Kitchen Knife from 1919, Hoch not only makes a capitalist critique with her montage made from old discarded newspapers and abject materials, but also comments on female representation within the media. To go into Berlin Dada with any depth right here would be endless, but it is enough to say that this era of photomontage was highly politicised and its main aim was reproduction and mass movement.
Paris and Surrrealism
Not only influenced by Marx, but more explicitly by Freud, according to Rosalind Krauss, Surrealist photography falls into two distinct categories': the academic/illusionist and the autonomist/abstract. Both of these categories are heavily influenced by the Freud and his theories on dreams, the uncanny, chance and psychoanalysis. The aim of Surrealist photography seemed to be then to make strange and deflect reality. Brassi's Involuntary Sculpture series from 1910 seems to address the Freudian idea of chance whilst also making strange with its close up angle. Man Ray was also a leading figure when it came to taking images of mathematical objects in such a way that they are unrecognisable.
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