Photomontages
John Heartfield (artist)
1974 reprints of 1931-34 and 1938 originals
64.0 x 48.0 cm
TR 685 H42 1974 folio
These reprints of John Heartfield’s photomontages show one way that photographs circulated political knowledge. Heartfield reused and remixed images printed in the German mainstream media in order to expose and critique Nazi propaganda. One example of this kind of print media can be found in a cigarette album that celebrates Adolf Hitler’s life.
Some of Heartfield’s photomontages were published in the left-wing workers’ magazine Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (Workers Illustrated Newspaper, also known as AIZ) and some were reprinted and disseminated as posters. We can get a sense of the power that these photomontages may have held for contemporary viewers from Walter Benjamin's comment in his 1934 essay, "The Author as Producer," that Heartfield's "technique made book jackets into a political instrument."
The prints housed in Bruce Peel Special Collections were reprinted in 1974 as collectors' items. Today, the photomontages are most often viewed as works of art, and Heartfield is often described as a Dada artist. Another artist who took a similar approach by using printed media to critique mainstream culture was Hannah Höch.