FAKE!
Early Photo Collages and Photomontages from the Rijksmuseum Collection
Publication date: 17 December 2025 - 10:27
Almost immediately after the invention of the medium people began manipulating photographs – some with scissors and glue, others through ingenious photographic techniques. Drawing on more than 50 historical images from the museum’s own collection, the exhibition FAKE! Early Photo Collages and Photomontages, shows how image manipulation developed – from the birth of photography to the Second World War – and explores the motives behind it. The exhibition runs from 6 February to 25 May 2026 in the Photo Gallery of the Rijksmuseum.
Many photo collages and composites depict impossible, absurd or humorous scenes that no one would have mistaken for reality. Yet even then, the boundary between genuine and fake, believable and unbelievable, was often hard to see.
Hans Rooseboom, Curator of Photography
Cut and paste
The exhibition covers 1860–1940, a period when the possibilities of cutting and pasting photographs were widely explored. People also started experimenting with other methods of image manipulation. One trick that became popular shortly after the invention of photography was to show the same person twice in a single image: first, one half of the plate was exposed; then the subject would move, strike a different pose, and the other half of the plate was exposed. This technique was mostly used for harmless visual jokes, purely for entertainment, but the exhibition also shows how it was sometimes employed with very serious intent.
Political protest
Exaggeration, humour and incongruous visual combinations also played a major role in political protest. The best-known creator of political photo composites is John Heartfield (pseudonym of Helmut Herzfeld, 1891–1968), who opposed Hitler’s Nazi movement. Several examples of his work appear in the exhibition.
The Rijksmuseum’s photography collection has been made possible through the generous support of partners, private donors and institutional benefactors.
Downloads
The largest ear of corn grown, W.H. Martin (photografer), The North American Post Card Co. (publisher), 1908. Purchase 2018
Car flying over Mulberry Bend Park, New York, Theodor Eismann (publisher), before 1908. Purchase 2025
Man and woman with briefcase and three babies above Hamburg, P. Michaelis (Berlin, publisher), c. 1900-1910.
Mimikry, Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung (A-I-Z), 19 april 1934, John Heartfield, pseudonym of Helmut Herzfeld (1891-1968), 1934. Purchase 2025