John Stezaker

John Stezakers work re-examines the various relationships to the photographic image: as
documentation of truth, purveyor of memory, and symbol of modern culture. In his collages,
Stezaker appropriates images found in books, magazines, and postcards and uses them as
readymades. Through his elegant juxtapositions, Stezaker adopts the content and contexts
of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings.
In using stylistic images from Hollywoods golden era, Stezaker both temporally and
conceptually engages with his interest in Surrealism. Placed in contemporary context, his
portraits retain their aura of glamour, whilst simultaneously operating as exotic artefacts
of an obsolete culture. Similar to the photos of primitivism published in George Batailles
Documents, Stezakers portraits celebrate the grotesque, rendering the romance with
modernism equally compelling and perverse.

Process: This image by Stezaker is a combination of an old postcard and

an old black and white film still from a magazine. This image is part of a
larger series called Marriage where Stezaker explores the relationships to
the photographic image: as documentation of truth and symbol of modern
culture.

Content: This combination of landscape and portrait

is of what appears

to be a old sepia post card of a gorge in America which has been positioned
on top of what appears to be a black and white portrait of a couple, the
couple in the background are looking at each other and Stezaker has
juxtapositioned the gorge in such a way that it appears to replace the hidden
faces of the couple . The photographer may be telling a story of a place that
has affected the relationship of the couple in some way , the gorge may have
been an important location in the life of the couple such as the place they
met or a favourite holiday destination.

Form: Stezaker although classified as a photographer rarely takes his own

pictures the image above is a typical example of how Stezaker uses collage
instead of photography to create his art work. In this particular occasion he
has combined a sepia postcard with a black and white image from a
magazine, he has simply placed the postcard on top of the magazine image
without any further manipulation, he has instead used the technique of
juxtapositioning to create the illusion.

Mood: Although the photograph is aesthetically pleasing I believe that a

emotional response can be evoked if the viewer also has a personal
relationship with the location in the postcard. I do however appreciate the
beauty of the technique used creating a harmonious seemingly flawless
image through the combination of two very different subjects. I can see how
an atmosphere of calmness can be experienced by the viewer however the
surreal replacement of the faces with the landscape can also be unnerving as
it removes the face and replaces it with something un natural.

Personal development: I have chosen to analyse this image because it

caught my eye and I found it the most interesting of the series, this image
and the other works of Stezaker links to my own project because I am
exploring how portraits and landscapes can be combined in order to
represent a relationship between the person and the place, I plan to take

photographs using the same techniques in my own area to tell the story of
people I know and their relationship to those places. I will do this using
Stezakers collage technique as well as attempting to merge the images using
Photoshop.