I Give New Lives To Old, Forgotten Photographs By Creating Collages With Them Surrounded By Nature (36 Pics)

I trawl Facebook marketplace, eBay, Gumtree, car boot sales, and charity shops for material every spare chance I get. Wild collaging makes you get outside in the fresh air too, which is so important for uplifting one's mental health after the turbulent few years we've all had. It also hones your attention and your focus which encourages you to notice the small details, which in turn ultimately enhances the final piece as well as gives you a different appreciation of your surroundings. It is such an incredibly creative and almost limitless medium, which absolutely has its place in contemporary art. It makes you explore different concepts because you are rendering each cutout element as detached from its original meaning, and therefore open to reinterpretation.

My particular favorite style is using vintage images of people - whether that be via traditional cut-paper collaging, or these wild collages you see here. I like to create playful and whimsical narratives using these forgotten folks, while breathing colorful new life into them as a result. Your imagination can go absolutely wild creating new relationships and perspectives between images in surreal ways.

One of the best things about #wildcollaging is that you can do this form of art absolutely anywhere. Every nook and cranny holds a possibility, every twig or stone could be a scene, and every puddle or pond is a chance for adventure. Even a pile of trash offers the scope to tell a story. I always carry a little packet of cutout people wherever I go, including abroad when I go on holiday! It's rather fun to see the look on people's faces when you whip out a little person from your bag, and then contort yourself in imaginative ways to get that perfect shot. Just remember never to litter, and always take your paper bits away with you.

I became aware of wild collaging back in 2021 when I dropped a cutout figure I was carrying around the house into a plant pot. I sort of stared at it and realized that with a bit of adjustment, it looked really good! I wondered if anyone else had done something similar, and scrolled through the internet to find that a fair few other collage artists were - hence discovering the term #wildcollaging. It was like a tap had been turned on in my mind, and all these ideas flooded out. I immediately gathered up some of my cuttings and ventured out on a walk with them. It was pure joy to discover another subset of collage that I could partake in and enjoy.

I select the paper elements at home, and love using vintage photos of people who are 'doing something'. For example; holding something, sitting, or perhaps reaching upwards, etc. This means you can get some movement and fun into the wild collage because the figure looks like it's interacting with the environment you've placed it in. It pays to back your figures with a layer of black paper or thin cardboard as this will make them easier to place and also stops the sun from shining through the back and washing out your little person. It can take a while to get good at arranging the figures, as there are sometimes limitations to what you can do with paper. For example, I've used a few in water and there is definitely a time limit on those! Wind and sunshine can cause a problem too, but these issues can be overcome by the use of blue tack, or taping a toothpick to the back of the figure in order to peg it to the ground.

I am drawn to vintage images over more modern images because there is a rose-tinted sweetness to the styles of those people who have long gone. It feels good to take them out of their black-and-white scenes and pop them into a whole new world of color and life. Old photos of people have always fascinated me and they are often all that is left to show that person ever lived. There is a nostalgic sadness to that, and I'd like to think one day someone would use an image of me in the same way! I also prefer the way they stand in contrast to everything else in the resulting picture. However, I don't limit myself to old photos and can play with modern images too.

Cut-paper collage traditionally involves the use of glue and other mediums to create a 2D assemblage out of ephemera. As with all forms of art, these concepts can be loosened to include other variants and subsets. There are digital collagists, assemblage collagists working in 3D, and mixed media styles are also firmly rooted in the art form now, too. To wild collage is to simply take the art outdoors for a while.

I am a lover of art in general, but collaging is the only one I am good at. I've dabbled in inkwork, needle felting, painting, and embroidery. None have swept me away on a creative wave like collaging has done. One of the best things about collage is that it's incredibly inclusive as anyone can do it. You only need the basics to instantly create something - a bunch of bits of paper and some glue. Once you start there, you're set on a path of inspiration when you realize you can create just about anything! Finding other contemporary and mixed-media collage artists has been incredible - there is so much talent out there, and I am constantly in awe of how every single artist can see completely different things in the material they use. The human mind is brilliant.

So what do you think? Will you give wild collaging a try? If you have any magazines, leaflets, postcards, papers, posters, or catalogs just lying around, try them. YOU are already a collage artist, you just don't know it yet! If you do, please use #wildcollaging on Instagram so I can see your wild collaging artwork.