The Great Wave, Sete, 1856/59 海景

Le Gray, who began his career as a painter, was unable to capture in a single photograph the images that he wanted of the sky and the sea for his Les Marines series, of which this is a part. He thus created these works by making a montage or combination of separate negatives of each subject. The term “photomontage” is derived from montage, a French term for assemblage. It refers to overlapping and combining two or more images in a composite photograph. In contrast to collage, photomontage is a darkroom technique involving the use of overlapping negatives, darkroom masking, and multiple exposures. Many artists have claimed credit for inventing this technique, but who was in fact the first to use it is unknown. It was, however, dubbed “photomontage” by Raoul Hausmann, the editor of Der Dada, a Dada magazine, and George Grosz. Sometimes, however, “photomontage” is used to refer to a collage made of photographs, blurring the distinction between the two terms.