Deconstructing the Grand Master Part XII - Benjamin Williams Leader

I was able to reflect today on some of the suggestions made during this week by Dr Ian M. and Christian, my year tutor. IM suggested exploring the works of John Stezeker, whom I found to be of immediate help in looking through the theme of photographic montage, the combination of the old and the new, to find a "new" truth.  This can be seen particularly well in the series of "Old Masks" and "Fold"...

 In Stezakers "The Visitation"(2006) he is placing the old into the new, in a way that makes the image carry huge emotional power, by using a portrait of the Virgin Mary superimposed onto a man appearing to be sat at a table waiting for food perhaps, whilst reading a news paper.  I like the fact that the older picture is the religious icon, whilst the newer background frame, being black and white, suggests a more distant image from say the 1940s or 1950s, of an anaonymous male, white collar working class perhaps?  I believe the juxtaposition of image to context is what makes this work so well.

 The "Old Mask" series by John Stezaker explores potential memories, potentially in the images within the minds of the background subjects, replacing the facial features of the subject in such a way to almost obliterate their identity. However, their identity is in fact formed by these memory images themselves.  Ergo, they are still recognisable as individual identities through these combined images.  The memory is so often captured in our contemporary culture as a photographic image, which can then be shared with other viewers who may have had no immersion into the original domain that the photo inhabits.  This is particularly interesting as I see around us an slow shift of media from black & white photo images, to colour photo, and now through current technology, full colour film and sound clips uploaded to the internet that can be viewed by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world.  Our memories are no longer kept as items within "local" repositories to share.... They are ubiquitous.

The images were similar to the final image of Autumn in Switzerland that I had created which has a background contemporary view of the landscape outside of the frame that Benjamin Williams Leader recorded.

I'm pleased that I was able to find current successful artists who have adopted a similar idea.