photomontage · noun — A composite image combining two or more photographs.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Why “photomontage” is a great word
A composite image created by combining two or more photographs, or the artistic practice of constructing such images. From photo- (a combining form from Greek phōs, phōt- 'light,' used for 'photograph') + montage (from French, from monter 'to mount,' referring to the assembly of elements); first attested in English in 1931. Unlike 'collage' (which embraces diverse, tactile materials) or 'composite' (a neutral, technically broad term), photomontage preserves the specific gravity of scissors and glue applied to light-captured moments. It is the revolutionary's face grafted onto a bourgeois body, the impossible skyline where tenements stack like children's blocks, the family portrait invaded by machinery or war—the careful lie that reveals a deeper fracture, trusting the eye to believe what the mind knows to be false.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From photo- + montage.
noun
- A composite image combining two or more photographs.
- The art of constructing such images.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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