Just come across the fantastic collage artist John Stezaker, after feeling the need to research the cover of the book I was reading on Appropriation. His understanding and visually intellectual use of the form of collage is really evident and striking – and the quite minimal (I hate how often that word is used, but it’s definitely relevant) appraoch to collage is a really nice contrast to what the form generally suggests.
“John Stezaker: My mother has always been horrified at how my work emerged out of childhood vandalism. I was into it from the beginning, seemingly. I cut up and defaced books, and was regarded as very naughty for doing it. I do still feel that guilt, there is something very peculiar about taking a scalpel which was invented for surgical purposes and cutting across the emulsion of a photograph. I don’t know why I felt it was necessary. It shocks me sometimes how violent my early work was. But you can only get a feeling of the inviolable purity and sanctity of the emulsion of a photograph by violating it.” Interview here: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/interview/1940374/john-stezaker-vandal-thief.
