For this project, I aimed to create a photomontage. I was slightly perplexed where to start as I couldn’t access printers at university due to recent restrictions. Then I realized I have about a million images (no exaggeration) as I mostly do film photography, there were bound to be hundreds of pictures I am not sentimental about and could use for this purpose.
To my great relief and contentment, I was correct. Boxes and containers full of material I could engage with and manipulate. I began collecting what I thought would be suitable and cutting out shapes and forms. I thought of the fragility and meaninglessness of human existence and how momentary it is. Humans, in their egotism, think they are so important, with all the structures we build and civilizations we found, but we have only been here for a short time.
Entertaining fact, the big bang was about 13.8 Billion years ago. Modern humans (homo sapiens) have been on earth for about 200,000 years, seems like a lot but, it is really less than 1 percent of the earth’s age.
I started by getting into my storage (sofa in the living room, welcome to the narrowboat life) and taking everything out to assess what is valuable and what is not. I tried a few options before I glued the final composition together.
I made this photomontage exclusively from my photographs.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was able to employ and am very satisfied with the final effect. With this piece, I focused on utilizing the negative space on the contrary to my previous work. I strive to explore all the possibilities and diversity of Collage art practice.
Ela Skorska 