[Photo Collage: Musician Playing Trombone] 1870 - 1880

This photo collage, "Musician Playing Trombone", was created by Juan Pedro Chabalgoity in Montevideo, Uruguay, using paper and photographic materials. Chabalgoity has humorously combined a portrait with an illustration to create a caricature of a musician in action. The process involves cutting and pasting, repurposing existing imagery to create something entirely new. The material itself - printed paper - was relatively inexpensive and widely available, making this art form accessible. This kind of work sits outside the traditional categories of fine art. The labor is not in rendering a perfect likeness, but rather in the clever juxtaposition of existing images. Consider the social context: photography was becoming increasingly popular, and printed ephemera saturated the urban environment. Chabalgoity taps into this visual culture, creating a playful commentary on portraiture and representation. By embracing collage, he elevates everyday materials to a form of artistic expression, challenging the conventional hierarchies of art and craft.