Surrealism

In my last post we looked at the Modernist movement in photography of the early 20th Century, in this post we look at Surrealism which was born in 1930.


Surrealism a 20th Century Avant Garde movement in art and literature sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind.
In other words the surrealist did not rely on reasoned analysis, on the contrary the forces of reason were seen to block access routes to the imagination, the surrealist wanted to tap into the creative powers of the unconcious.
Surrealism was dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams.  This can be seen in the early dreamlike work of Spanish born painter Salvator Dali, a Surrealist of the early 1900's

Salvador Dali
'Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening'

Salvador Dali
'The persistence of memory'

The Surrealist photographer made use of such techniques as double exposure, combination printing and reversed tonality to evoke the union of dreams and reality.

Surrealist Automatism an art technique created by the surrealists as a means of expressing the subconscious.

Andre Breton (French writer & poet) defined Surrealism a "Pure Physic Automatism"

This image by Gerry Uelsmann is an example of combination printing where the final image is achieved by using more than one negative.
Similar to Photo Montage, the process and result of making a composite photograph by cutting and joining 2 or more photographs into an illusion of an unreal subject achieved through image editing software.

Another technique used by the surrealist was Solarization where 
an image recorded on a negative or photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. 


ie dark appears light and light areas appear dark, as seen in this image by Man Ray.





First thoughts on Surrealism, in all honesty I thought, is this for real !!!.  
There are some weird and wonderful images out there that I just didn't get.  
I wondered is this a guise for people to claim, under the umbrella of surrealism, that just about anything, the bazaar, as art?.  
But, having looked more closely at this movement, my views have changed.  
I must admit I still come across a lot of images that I go what the *** is all this about,  is there a message, what is that message?, what does it mean??. 
However the more I delve into this subject the more it intrigues me, my curiosity is peaked.  
I am inspired to try my own Surrealist Imagery.  Let my imagination loose, so that's what I do.... 

For these images I have tried to recreate a multiple exposure effect.  This I achieved in post production through photo shop, where I played around with 2 or more images. I  used images that I felt would work well together and found that the images worked better if they had different tonal ranges. I made some adjustment layers to each image, once I was happy with how the individual images looked I blended those images into one final image.   I like the results, they have a dreamlike quality to them.  They are a composite of real images that when put together become surreal.   

Angie Finn 

Angie Finn 

Angie Finn 

Some more Surrealist Photographs

This is an image by American Photographer Arthur Tress (1940)  who was well known for his staged surrealism and exposition of the human body.

                                                    

                                                                  Arthur Tress

Ralph Gibson, also an American Photographer whose images show the influence of Surrealism 

                                                     

                                                                                               Ralph Gibson

Jose Maria Rodriguez Madoz a Spanish born artist of Surrealism.  He is best known for his Black & White Surrealist Photographs.  He uses simple everyday things to make his fresh ideas come true.   His style consists of depicting constructed or imagined real life situations from temporary staging.

Jose Maria Rodriguez Madoz

Jose Maria Rodriguez Madoz