The Ethics of Photo Montage
As the technique of using photo montage grows in popularity, we should stop and question the extent of it being an ethical technique to be used in art forms. To understand the context of this question, we need to backtrack to understand how these techniques are used.
Photo montage is basically a technique used to combine images together. While this might sound simple, there are many considerations involved in the creation of one photo montage. When photo montage was first used in the Victorian era, artists then had to be concerned with the scaling and sizing of each image. As times progressed, there was a different set of considerations to achieve different representations. With the present advancement of technology, many artists now use specialised digital image editing programmes to create one of these pieces. This leads us to the question of how reliable these techniques can be.
Using photo montage software, artists are now able to doctor photographs to create illusions instead of mere corrections. The materials that are input in the photo montages may be imaginary or real life images that are superimposed on one another to create something that has never existed. While this represents bold moves in the art scene, this technique is being fast adopted in the advertising world. Advertisers compose images that are non-existent and this poses a moral issue if consumers wrongly mistake into believing the occurrence of certain events.
A fine example of an unethical behaviour is the creation of fake news reports and editorial pieces. Consumers are misled into having doubts over truth over an image and this can later lead to ethical and political consequences.
There is a fine line dividing between aesthetics and ethics and this is commonly challenged by many artists now. With the proliferation of various photo montage software, artists and even those that are non trained can easily whip out a photo montage.
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