Peter Kennard
Defended to Death
1982
I think this photomontage is a great example of how you can use photomontage to deliver a specific message. The photomontage shows the Earth wearing a gas mask, with the American and Soviet Union flags for eyes, and missiles coming out of the mouth. The message this photomontage sends out is that the Earth is being destroyed by war such as the one between America and the Soviet Union. The gas mask tells us that during the way, mustard gas/nuclear weapons were used and in order for people to prevent themselves from inhaling toxic material, they had to wear gas masks. And the missiles coming out of the mouth, whether they are nuclear or not, tells us that there was destruction caused towards the Earth's surface. This photomontage uses various elements and principles of design. It uses shape by blending together geometric shapes such as the Earth which is a circle, the circle flags for the eyes and the cylinders with triangular tops for the missiles. There's very little use of the element of colour because it only uses the neutrals black, white and grey. The balance in this photomontage is symmetrical. If you were to put a vertical line down the middle, it would have an equal amount of the image on both sides. And contrast in this image is shown with the white on the Earth, flags and missiles on top of the black background.
