Photobook Research #2

The photos included in this book are related formally as well as conceptually, it seems, as the style of each photo remains the same. I find these photos very interesting, as they take images from different sources and cut them together to create an entirely new meaning. These photomontages are representative of the Nazi movement, as the entire book seems to revolve around the folly of it all, revealing the curated nature of this genocide and depicting Nazi leaders and soldiers as the cowards that they truly are. In this way, the book is entirely political and anti-war in nature, with an aim to evoke feelings of disgust and disapproval of the Nazi  movement from the viewer. Since these photomontages were distributed during World War II, it is clear that this work was used to encourage social protest among the everyday citizen. As stated previously, the primary design element of the book is cropping images of Hitler and other Nazi leaders onto other photos, drawing around them, and creating new captions for these photos to give them new meanings. 

            The book begins with a montage of Hitler’s face cropped onto the body of a butcher, holding knives up at the ready to kill a hen standing on the table in front of him. The caption of this photo is “Now don’t be scared- he’s a vegetarian,” which represents the concept of Hitler smirkingly posing as the innocent in the situation. Moving through the book, the reader then comes across a photo of a seemingly ravenous hyena bearing his teeth with piles of dead bodies scattered around it, while wearing a top hat and an emblem hanging from it’s neck; the caption is “War and corpses- the last hope of the rich,” exemplifying the way in which these well-off Nazi leaders grasped for any source of power they could manage, relying on their control over others to determine their social status. Another montage shows a very small Hitler watering a large plant, with Nazi helmets and gas masks replacing the plant’s acorns. I interpreted this to demonstrate the way in which Hitler tended to his plan so carefully, visiting each city during his running in the election, curating each speech to target the audience in a way that would make them want to support him and truly believe his motives were meant for good, making the Nazi circle bigger through the fakest of means.

            There is no linear relationship between the photographs, as each one stands independently within the book. Conceptually, all photographs work together to present the truly devastating and pathetic nature of the Nazi regime, however each photograph emulates this in a different way. Each photograph takes up a full page, making its illustrations stand out in full detail while commanding the attention of the viewer, conveying the idea that its messages displayed are truly significant. While use of the montage is highly effective in this instance to embody certain concepts, and while I may utilize this strategy in personal projects in the class, I don’t think I would use it in the photobook assignment for my partner at Brain Fitness due to the fact that he has a hard time grasping abstract representations, concepts and ideas.