Here’s a couple tired old idioms for you to dwell over: a picture is worth a thousand words and two sides to every story. Yawn. All clichéd out? Apologies for reeling out those grizzled turns of phrase, but Atlanta-based photographer Stephen McMennamy manages to eek out meaning and value in the pair of them; ongoing combophotos project playing out regularly on his Instagram account, @smcmennamy.
Like those dated expressions, the premise of McMennamy’s work is simple: a pair of photos get stitched together, the results falling into the realm of fantasy. Of course, the easiest-looking things are always much more complicated beneath the surface — something Stephen is at pains to stress in his accompanying account, @combophotofail; where the labours of his images are laid bare, ill-executions and all. Food, scale, preconceptions and shameless stupidity are recurring themes in Stephen McMennamy’s images which, if not consigned to his secondary account, are always meticulously executed. Fun, plain and simple, fun.
