Exploring Digital Photomontage: Hanbury Street Art
I Made this photomontage from two images. The subject is a man I photographed walking up Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane, in 2002. I’ve always been interested in encouraging viewers to look at a photograph, particularly of people, in a different way. In the past I would repeat images printed in the darkroom and and paste them together. Here I was working in a digital environment. The background was constructed from different segments of artwork to make highly saturated, blurred color blocks—almost like a digital gradient or colour test pattern.
On the left, the colours feel softer and more diffused; on the right, they appear darker and more intense. In fact one is a positive and the other a negative. The effect shows how context shapes perception despite the fact that both images of the man are exactly the same.
I also like the idea that this man is being celebrated by the rich colours surrounding him, almost as if he’s been immortalised in stained glass.
The non digital collage below is based on a photograph I took in Commercial Street in 1987.
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