Jerry Uelsmann is considered to be the forerunner of the photomontage movement in the 20th century. Uelsmann is famous for his extensive use photo-manipulation in the darkroom.
Despite the wide area of focus, many of his works feature a focal point featured in the center. In the image above, he plays with contrast, space and perspective to bring the viewer's eyes towards the center of the image. There is a consistent balance of bright positive light and the negative until the image gets to the center, where there is a very large difference in space in the huge black void and the four white statues.
The most challenging thing about trying to replicate/imitate his technique is to be able to fit two pictures of two different perspectives into one image. I was able to shift and warp the pictures around in order to get them to fit in a believable manner, but it is absolutely astonishing to me that Uelsmann was able to do so with only an enlarger. I assume that he might have had the perspective of the shot in his head, or he might have taken pictures of objects and scenes at multiple angles.
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