Photography: shooting the truth : Photography and Society (Module 7)

Similarities and differences between Alexander Rodchenko, Peter Kennard and John Heartfield.

- Photo-montages - his form of art involves editing and combining several separate images, and presenting them as a conjoined piece, thus resulting in a brand new seamless photograph with many different pictures assembled as one. Each created works of photo-montage that contain political propaganda to express their views.

When taking a look at Alexander Rodchenko, Peter Kennard and John Heartfield and comparing them, it becomes evident that they are all share the same style, when it comes to their use of photomontage. Peter Kennard and John Heartfield are a lot more similar than Alexander Rodchenk in the way they displayed their image of hatred towards war. Both are against war and they display this through their photos by showing what politics is doing to the world. Looking at the image below by Peter Kennard called Union Mask, it displays that exact thought. The world is being masked by war, being led by the Americans and the British as the eyes on the mask.

Union Mask By Peter Kennard

John Heartfield’s photos are all geared towards the same time, World War II. The images were created to criticize the governments ruling in Germany, conveyed through a series of photo-montages. He created images such as “The Butter is Gone” an image of a German family sitting on the dinner table eating different weapons of war that replace the bread and butter that should be on the table. Heartfield photo was created based on the words of Goring in 1935, as this was said during a food shortage “Iron has always made a nation strong, butter and lard have only made the people fat”

Alexander Rodchenko's style of work is to combine cutting edge graphics in a magazine called "USSR in Construction". his images showcase the political propaganda, glorifying the achievements of the Soviet system. Rodchenko used photomontage by taking raw photographs and re-touching them to create a vision that everyone can talk about. one of his well-known images is "White Sea Canal".

"White Sea Canal" By: Alexander Rodchenko

Peter Kennard "Broken Missile", 1980

Photographers can have an impact on the society in many ways. Alexander Rodchenko, Peter Kennard and John Heartfield affect their societies with their own ways. For example, Alexander Rodchenko used the constructivism, supported the advertising art from the government and persuaded his way of graphic design to the field of photograph. Also, Peter Kennard and John Heartfield affects the people of their societies as Peter supported the government with the war and John Heartfield critized the war and totalitarianism. All of them acted in their own ways but all are related with the society. Moreover, the results of their ways appeared as people followed and adapted them. In addition, when we think about many terms such as Dadaism, graphic design and war in art field, we can find them very first. This definitely shows that these photographers really have an impact on the society.