How can I cut/slice a photo into moveable pieces on the canvas?

Question

My dad is a longtime fan of Robert Glasper, who recently released the album cover seen below - I've been trying to use compound paths and clipping masks to slice up his photo - but it leaves me without pieces that I can move.
Is there any way to create a similar effect as the image below? (photoshop or Illustrator)
(thanks guys - this is my first posting ever...so forgive any breaches in Adobe ettiquette

Answer 1

Brailleyard wrote:
(thanks guys - this is my first posting ever...so forgive any breaches in Adobe ettiquette
Thank you for a rare interesting post.
I'd come at it from another direction.  Rather than move tiny bits around the screen using dozens of layers, just use two or three layers, and create the sections in the layer mask.
Open your master image and create a new layer.  Make a rectangular selection and fill with black. copy that layer, and offset as below, and merge the two layers
Drag a selection around the above rectangles, and with other layers turned off, Edit > Define pattern.  Turn this layer off.
Make a new layer and fill it with the above pattern.  Use Free Transform to make the pattern fit the screen nicely.  Turn this layer off
Turn your portrait layer on, > Ctrl (Cmd) click the pattern layer, and add layer mask to portrait layer.
Copy this layer, and invert the layer mask.
Unlink the layer mask, and make sure the layer icon is selected, and not the layer mask.
Offset this layer.  The portrait will move, but the layer mask should stay in the same place.
Repeat above steps experimenting with layer mask inverted, and not inverted.
The layers panel will look like this:
And image like this
It took me longer to write this post than create the image above, so with time and thought, you can make something much better.  The point here is that it doesn't have to be a ton of work.
Good luck, and try and remember to show us what you make.