Hatfield lost his father when he was a child and lived a miserable life. Later, through hard work, she was admitted to Munich Art School at the age of 16, and continued to receive art education in Charlottenburg. Hatfield worked as an advertising painter, art teacher, cover designer and stage art designer, and made great achievements in painting, sculpture and art design, but what really made him famous was photography montage.
Photographic montage is photo editing. As a photography technique appealing to both refined and popular tastes, it was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and was widely used in artistic expression, publishing design and advertising production.
Hatfield's real name is Halsey Field? Helmut, in order to show contempt for the German Empire, was changed to John? English names like hatfield. During World War I, hatfield, who served in the German army, made postcards with his friends to communicate with each other in order to avoid the postal inspection in wartime. This is the predecessor of photographic montage.
Hatfield believes that photographic montage is the most convenient weapon for fighting. He is good at turning photography into a social and political weapon and injecting obvious political motives into surreal photos. His works have a clear theme and are full of fighting power. His main purpose is to oppose the war of aggression and death and Nazi fascism.
The 1930s was an important period for hatfield's creation. From 1930 to 1938, he produced 237 photographic montages for the German newspaper Laborer Pictorial. He edited photos and newspapers, created anti-Nazi propaganda placards and magazine illustrations, among which Adolf? Hitler's satire did everything possible. For example, in his most influential work "Superman Adolf Swallows Gold and Spits Shit", the so-called "Superman" Hitler swallowed a lot of gold coins and filled the whole box. There is also a note next to the photo: he swallowed gold and spit out garbage.
This photo fully exposed Hitler's hypocrisy and greed with clever editing techniques, and it is said that Hitler himself was very angry.
In addition, in The Meaning of Hitler's Salute, hatfield vividly revealed an "unspoken" fact through photos montage: Hitler was a puppet manipulated by the German big bourgeoisie with money. And "Wow, no butter" is a satire on Goering's famous saying that "iron always makes the country strong, while butter and lard can only make people fat". In this work, not only the adults at the dinner table are munching on steel to satisfy their hunger, but also the baby in the stroller and the dog on the ground are munching on steel with relish.
These works seem absurd, but they vividly depict the nature of Nazi fascism. Therefore, hatfield was madly persecuted by the Nazis, his works were burned, his nationality was revoked, and he was forced into exile in the Czech Republic. Taking photos as a political weapon and exerting such great power is unique in the history of photography.