Keavey Henshaw
Unit Three Photography
Written Study
Devling Into The Twisted Nature Of Surreal Photography
Surreal photography is something which has baffled and confused people over many years. It has been the style of choice for several artists due to the creative freedom and limitless borders surrealism brings. The twisted nature of surreal art not only falls into being a photographic experience but it can also be expressed through fine art, theatre and even music. Salvador dali once said
“ Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision. “
Travelling back to the early 1920s surrealism started as a cultural movement. Artists illustrated unnatural and illogical masterpieces whilst budding photographers began creating abnormal creatures from everyday objects. Finally unconscious thoughts and feeling were being expressed in ways never seen before. Surrealist artists and writers began to regard their work as an expression of the philosophical and psychological elements, with their works first and foremost being an artifact of themselves. Leading the movement was André Breton a French writer and poet who was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was a revolutionary movement and was something everyone should experience. Developed greatly from the Dada activities during World War One, the art movement which started in Europe in the early 20th century meant the most important progression of the movement was in Paris. Spreading at a furious rate from the 1920’s onwards surrealism spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts. Surrealism not only pushed creativity to it’s limits but it also influenced things such as political thoughts, and social theories. As World War One erupted the writers and artists who had been based in Paris scattered, and in the interim many became involved with Dada movement. After the war those whom had fled returned to Paris and the Dada activities continued. Breton later joined in Dada activities once the war had finished and started a literary journal along with a few other writers he met whilst serving in hospital he was trained at during the world war. The group dabbled in spontaneously writing, uncensored thoughts and memorable dreams, all of which were published in magazines and short books. Continuing to write, they attracted more artists and writers, new members including famous names such as Salvador Dali and Man Ray. In 1924 up to 1929 Andre Breton along with his growing group of like-minded thinkers, published two short documents called Surrealist Manifestos.Within the books Breton spoke about surrealism as a pure state of mind that allows someone to express thoughts freely and without the worry of rational thought or societal rules. He and his associates were now
attempting to introduce more open, free-thinking concepts particularly to artists, this began allowing the average folk to be more aware of themselves without influence from the outside world. Breton pushed artists to delve into their unconscious minds for inspiration and knowledge. Breton aimed for surrealism to be less extreme compared to the Dada movement, since surrealism was still considered to be art. “Pure psychic automatism” were words in which Brenton described as an one of the most important principles of Surrealism. He believed that true surrealists had no real talent; they just spoke their thoughts as they happened and from this it allowed others to develop techniques that had never been used in the art world before.
Artists, poets, musicians and photographers of the age slowly grew to enjoy the freedom surrealistic ideas allowed. In the 1930s and onwards Breton had not only accepted more sensational artists into his array of friends and acquaintances, the movement had began to flourish within communities of smaller artists of all types. This uplifted the movement into the public's eye and from this many more unique individuals began to rise.
An individual which had followed Breton throughout the starts of the movement was Man Ray. Man Ray was on the most versatile and inventive artists of this century. He was born in 1890 in Philadelphia and stayed there throughout his teenage years. Moving into his adult years, Ray moved to Paris in the 1920's it was at this point where his career took a turning. Throughout the 1920’s and the 1930's he followed the Dada and Surrealist movements, two things which he would eventually play a key role in. While Ray worked with a wide variety of mediums, he became most-known for his photography and photograms. Photoshop of course was not an option in his day and age but this didn’t stop him from creating some of the most influential surrealist photographs of all time. Double exposures were some of the techniques he used the most, although he also used montages, and the combination of printing to create works of art that left viewers scratching their heads. Throughout his career as an artist, Man Ray allowed few details of his early life to be known to the public. Whilst travelling and living in paris he personally refused to acknowledge that he ever had a name other than Man Ray. Towards the end of the 1920’s Ray became influenced by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud. The literary, and artistic movement he wrote about sought a revolution against the constraints of the rational mind, this was of course surrealism and from his writings Ray continued to be influenced by the growing movements.He lived in Paris throughout 1920’s and 1930’s but crossed the Atlantic again the early 1940’s spending periods in New York and Hollywood. During this time his artwork started to expand and advance more than just being fine art. His work started spanning to sculptures, films, prints and poetry, whilst his work began to amplify it slowly began to fall into different styles such as Cubism and Futurism. Not only did he successfully navigate his work through the the commercial and fine art worlds, he also became a sought-after fashion photographer.Alongside two individuals called Duchamp and Francis Picabia, Man Ray
became the leading figure in Dada movement along with following his passion in surrealism. He was also the only member of the Paris surrealist movement from the US. Surrealism challenged the then perceptions of art and literature, and advocated for spontaneity. He is perhaps most remembered for his photographs of the inter-war years, particular the camera-less pictures he called 'Rayographs', yet he always regarded himself first and foremost as a painter.
During the surrealism movement there was not only Man Ray whom took the spotlight, during his time in paris and then later in America more artists emerged. Whether these where photographers, painters or writers all had a place within the surrealist community. Some of these artists consisted of Guillaume Apollinaire who was an French poet, playwright and novelist. Pierre Reverdy was also a French poet whose works were inspired Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. Comte de Lautréamont was a French poet who also had a major influence on literature which stemmed from surrealism. Sadegh Hedayat who was an Iranian writer. Best known for his influence in literary modernism. There’s also Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud who was a French poet who influenced modern literature and arts, and prefigured surrealism during the time of it’s uprising. Not forgetting Salvador Dali.
Salvador Dalí was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Catalonia in Spain. Dali was one of the most famous Surrealist artists known for his wild art and a public personality to match. Dali first wrote poems and books before he transformed his passion towards painting. He wrote about being inspired greatly by the Dutch masters of 17th century realism, Dali’s artwork although was not known for its realistic qualities but more it’s surrealistic qualities. Through the pieces of work he published during his lifetime he used multiple symbolic images to suggest his subconscious.His paintings were odd, influenced by his dreams mainly but also were heavily based on his fear of sexual activities. This fear was present in many of his works, which depict sexual and violent images. At the time many artists had found themselves taking medication for a variety of illnesses, some now known as insomnia and bipolar disorder. Dali was one of those artists, yet he rejected induced sleep used by other artists at the time and termed his own style to be the paranoiac-critical method. A few of his pieces even had the words “paranoiac critical” in their titles. Along with many Surrealist artists dali used traditional means of painting
but developed techniques to bring meaning into their work. As years continued the majority of the Surrealist artists had become increasingly associated with leftist politics while Dali refused to contribute to this drastic transition. Dali maintained an ambiguous position on the subject of the proper relationship between politics and art. André Breton during this time accused Dali of defending the "new" and "irrational" in the rise of Hitler, but Dali quickly rejected this claim, saying, "I am Hitlerian neither in fact nor intention". Among other factors, Dalí insisted that surrealism could exist in a political matter this had landed him in trouble with his colleagues. In 1936, Dali took part in the London International Surrealist Exhibition. His lecture was delivered while wearing a deep-sea diving suit and helmet. He had arrived leading a pair of Russian wolfhounds, and had to have the helmet unscrewed as he gasped for breath. He commented that "I just wanted to show that I was 'plunging deeply' into the human mind." Even though he is one of the best known surrealist artists, in 1938 Dali dissociated himself from Surrealism this was due to the fact he was subjected to a "trial", in which he was formally expelled from the main Surrealist group in Paris. In 1940 he moved to the United States to take part in growing movement of Classicism, yet he never completely gave up his belief on surrealism. Dali believed surrealist art was symbolic and often open to interpretation. This style and technique received much rejection by the art world which continued in their set in stone ways, but the movement was eventually accepted and paved the way for other expressive forms of art.
“ Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”
The image to the right is a surrealistic image created by Christopher McKenney. McKenney identifies as a conceptual artist from Pennsylvania specializing in horror surrealist photography. As an analysis for this image you can firstly see that it falls into the category of being abstract, this is shown through achieving effects using shapes, colours, and even texture. The image is not a visual representation of reality but rather it attempts to capture unrealistic and surrealistic qualities. As for the background with most surreal photos the most important imagery is in the front, and as you can see with this image it’s exactly the same. Mckenney specifically made the background less relevant to the foreground imagery so it didn’t take the attention away from the most important part of the image. The central focus in this image also related to the foreground images, the gentleman falling alongside the burning bed is the most prominently and most clearly focused in a photograph, this indicates that this part of the image is the central focus. Naturalistic colour palettes have also been used when Mckenney created this image, there is no sufficient evidence to show the colour saturation being enhanced in anyway therefore it leaves the impression that there has been no extensive colour changes whilst in the editing processes. As for lighting this also links with the use of colour palettes, not only are the colour palettes naturalistic but the lighting is also that of natural lighting, the sun but also the fire aids in the different lighting effects. As for the lighting and colour palette having an visual effect on the image the contrast levels which could have been added in Photoshop at a later date also contributing factor to the remainder of the image. The difference
between the orange hues in the fire and the yellow hues in the background contrast against each other as well as the light and dark saturations in the black and white parts of the image. Mckenny also made this piece of artwork to be expressive, it communicates emotion through the unlining meaning of the image. Interpreted differently from person to person, this is the way Mckenney has left it, he’s not directly described what he envisions for each image, the artist has left it up to audience interpretations. This idea links with the characteristics around surrealism.
This image to the right has been created by Brooke Shaden. She was born in March in 1987 in Pennsylvania. In December of 2008 she was photographically born after graduating from Temple University with a bachelor degree in film studies and english. She began creating self-portraits but self-portraits with a twist. She places herself within environments she wishes to explore, not environments she’s already been in. By using painterly techniques as well as the square format, traditional photographic properties are replaced by otherworldly elements. In the image you can see to the left which Shaden has created of herself, it like the one above created by Mckenney also falls into the category of being abstract, this is shown through the colour palette, overlaying textures and the image orientation. As stated before in the way Shaden likes to create her images this image is not a visual representation of reality, in fact it is an attempts to capture unrealistic surroundings and landscapes in which the artist wishes to explore. The background of this image like the Mckenney one also refrains from containing lots of detail other than textured hues and saturations. Once again this background is less relevant compared to the foreground image of Brooke herself. This then allowed the central focus and focus point of the image to continue being Brooke and the surrealistic umbrellas. As for the colour palette, in this image a lot of desaturated colours can be found. The orange and purple hues aren’t brightly coloured but this design technique adds to the elements of contrast between the light and dark shades within the image. As for lighting this also links with the use of colour palettes. Yellow and purple
are contrasting and complimentary colours, and these are the two different types of hue used vastly within this photograph.As for the lighting and colour palette having an visual effect on the image the contrast levels which have been added in editing software afterwards the different image elements had been taken contribute factor to the remainder of the image. As for the intentions behind her work, most have already been explained when it comes to her idolising different landscapes and situations she’d dream to be put into, but her intentions also run with wanting to inspire other to do what she has done. To get a good education and prove that anything is possible when you put your mind to it. Like Mckenney's work, Shaden has also allowed her work to be expressive, but the facts behind this are known to her fans. She specifically creates her images in order to place herself in different situations which she’s never been in before and this could add a dream like effect. Although she doesn’t show the full range of characteristics around surrealism, she does shown her own stylized imagery with a surrealistic twist.
The Surrealist impulse to tap the unconscious mind in modern day is everywhere and like those who follow the movement whilst it was starting till present day artists everywhere to delve into surrealistic techniques know there is no limitation to life. The artist's interests in life, the mind, sub conscious choices and more still continue to drive surrealism into the works we see today. Surrealism helps teach artists that's there are no limits to what can be created and after many years after the creating of surrealism it still goes into shape many current art movements, the style remains influential to this today.
Bibliography
Dali's Optical Illusions Hardcover book by Dawn Ades
Surrealist Photography (Photofile) Paperback book by Christian Bouqueret
Surreal Photography Paperback book by Daniela Bowker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm
http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-surrealism-definition-art-characteristics.html
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/Origins-of-Surrealism.html
https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/surrealist-photography/
http://www.manraytrust.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-ray-man.htm
http://www.sigmundfreud.net/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Apollinaire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Reverdy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comte_de_Lautr%C3%A9amont
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadegh_Hedayat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rimbaud
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD
http://www.christophermckenney.com/untitled-text-pagehttp://brookeshaden.com/about/