03.04.25 | Composite Photography
'Ermanox' camera with Ernostar f1.8 lens, plate holder and six sheet film holders by Ernemann in leather case marked 'Zeiss Ikon', 1925.
The camera above is the Ermanox f1.8, used by Eric Salomon, a talented photographer for Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung. The 1935-1955 period was the golden age of picture magazines.
Salomon, a discreet Jewish doctor, navigated Europe’s busy 1930s diplomatic scene, where politicians met behind closed doors. Disguised in evening wear and fluent in seven languages, he sneaked into conferences with his tiny Ermanox, capturing candid shots of statesmen using available indoor lighting.
Inspired by him, others adopted smaller cameras like the Leica for faster, more dynamic shots. Picture magazines, including Berliner Illustrierte in Germany and Picture Post in Britain, thrived during World War II despite paper shortages.
By the 1950s, many lost relevance as television took over, offering faster news coverage and attracting advertisers. Eric Salomon was killed by the Nazis in 1944.
Two Ways of Life by Oscar Gustav Rejlander (British, born in Sweden, 1813–1875) was one of the 19th century's most ambitious and controversial photographs.
Composite photography combines multiple images into one, creating dreamlike, surreal visuals. Though it may seem simple, mastering this technique takes practice and patience.
Today, fine art and conceptual photographers excel at composites, crafting scenes impossible in reality. But this method isn’t new—it dates back over a century.
In Britain, Oscar Rejlander pioneered combination printing, layering separate negatives of figures, backgrounds, and foregrounds into a single image. The technique originally solved a photography issue: collodion plates overexposed skies, so photographers blended two negatives—one for the sky, one for the landscape. Rejlander refined this into complex compositions like Two Ways of Life, an elaborate allegory of the choice between vice and virtue.
Not composite photography, but a few years ago, I was really into digital collage. I loved mixed media—hence the name Collagewise (surprise!). The -wise is like lengthwise, clockwise, workwise—a nod to my visual approach. Whether in photography or design, my style has always been spontaneous, collage-like, layered, and a little quirky.
