Which artist was known for blending multiple negatives in the darkroom and now creates multi-image composites digitally?

• A. Ansel Adams
• B. Jerry Uelsmann
• C. Andreas Gursky
• D. Cindy Sherman

Answer: (B)

Blending several negatives to create a single image is a hallmark of early photomontage in the darkroom, where an artist layers different frames to build a surreal, cohesive scene. Jerry Uelsmann became the most famous for this approach, constructing intricate composites by using multiple negatives on one piece of paper, often with separate enlargers, masks, and careful exposure to make the seams disappear. This technique let him craft dreamlike landscapes and scenarios that couldn’t exist in a single photograph.

When digital tools arrived, he carried that same concept into the computer age, continuing to create multi-image composites digitally while preserving the characteristic built-up, seamless look of his early work. Ansel Adams is renowned for pristine landscape photography grounded in the Zone System and single-image realism; Andreas Gursky is known for large-scale, highly polished images often assembled or manipulated digitally for grand, expansive scenes, but not for the darkroom multi-negative blending Uelsmann popularized; Cindy Sherman builds conceptual self-portraits rather than composites built from multiple negatives.