(Mary Georgiana Caroline, Lady Filmer (English, 1838–1903) Untitled loose page from the Filmer Album, mid-1860s, Collage of watercolor and albumen silver prints; 8 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (22.2 x 28.6 cm), Collection Paul F. Walter.)

"Needless to say, the photocollage approach brought a new specificity and bite to the homemade album format, creating richly freighted social and personal artifacts. Women could celebrate their children, illustrate family trees, demonstrate social connections, flirt with gentlemen other than their husbands and also show flashes of wit and mischievousness that didn’t always have other outlets. Real people enter the picture and are, literally and figuratively, moved about rather like pawns on a chessboard. Stylistically too."

The collage gives almost complete artistic freedom. One basically creates a scenario with collage where the images are just pieces to the puzzle one wants to create. I think this creative freedom is the most interesting part of collage making. I think we inherently desire to create and control our own environment and this artistic medium gives us the freedom to do that. Historically, it also gave women to order their picture in a way that they could not do in reality which is especially important because the collage literally give a woman something that she could not have prior. I think the creative freedom to manipulate a work in the way one wants to express it is fundamental to art and carried out through this medium.