Whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind and deaf: away with the stultifying bandages! Arbeiter-Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ) 9. no. 6
By wrapping this young man's head in the pages of the German Social Democratic Party's newspaper Onward (Vorwärts), this photomontage suggests that he has become blinded and even deaf to the reality that surrounds him. The caption reads: "I am a cabbage head. Do you know my leaves (which means both newspapers and cabbage leaves in German)? Whoever reads bourgeois newspapers becomes blind and deaf." Visually the body sits in undisturbed repose, expressing the person's frightful complacency with what he reads. This is suggested by allowing the text across his head to speak for him. Heartfield plays on features of earlier studio photographs, such as the aureole that surrounds the body contours, while surface details stand out in sharp relief, to suggest long exposure (associated with such studio photographs) and the instantaneity of photojournalism (its snapshots of world events).
Heartfield's montage aims to critique commercial photomontage; its easy manufacture and reproduction. It confronts the ethos of speed and excess in the market of mass-illustrated magazines and the continuous barrage of visual stimuli that had the effect of numbing the readers' senses. By comparison, the qualities of Heartfield's photomontages assert a diligent, revolutionary staying power that defined his scrupulously crafted montages, which secured the viewer's attention through their perceptual and psychological, yet humorous affective devices.
