Advanced SearchEvery once in a while you come across an image that seems to bridge the gap between the lucidity of a dream-like world and the harshness of reality. These are the images that can plunge you instantly into a world where you revel in fond fantasy, get lost in their infinite mystery or are visually jolted by a horrific nightmare.
Surrealism is a term most often associated with the traditional arts such as sculpture, painting and drawing. It seems a sort of contradiction of terms to coin the phrase 'Surrealist Photography', since the camera captures the mirror image of a reality as it has happened. But when surrealism and photography are paired together it can make for incredible imagery that is sure to leave an impression, and that former contradiction turns into perfectly paired magic.
To understand surrealism, we will give you a crash course on its origins. The Dada Movement was created as a slap in the face to an ugly war mongering society. Its creator, enraged by the atrocities of World War I, decided to create an anti-art. Instead of insulting the bourgeoisie it was heartily embraced and thus the anti-art became art. Shortly thereafter another group began to gain momentum, refusing to embrace the Dadaists art form as it had cast aside eons of passed down artistic knowledge. This was essentially the start of the Surrealist Movement in both literature and in art and it kicked off many views and interpretations of surrealism as we know it today, as the surrealists found ways of revealing to us the unconscious world and expressing visually the raw of human instinct and the utmost of inner desire.
Surrealism can be best described as an abstraction of reality. A diverged interpretation of what you see with eyes both open and closed. It is the stuff of dreams, nightmares, illusions, mystery, delusions and fantasy.
Since the time that surrealism and photography got in to bed together, it has chronicled a history of techniques consisting of spontaneous, accidental and experimental methods. All of these were pioneered on film media. Among these methods are the following:
This is the process of combining multiple photographs into one image.
For film it is done by stacking negatives together for a single printed image, or using a series of enlargers each armed with a different negative, dodging and burning the areas where the light needs to be controlled. Most are very familiar with this process and it is a process that can easily be done using layers in Photoshop.
Photograms are negative-less prints done without the use of a camera. They are achieved by placing objects onto a piece of light sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light. The density and opacity, as well as placement and layering of the objects will all bear on the outcome of the final image. After the exposure is made, the paper is then developed normally. To do this method properly, you need to start off with a dark room, and then flood it with white light once you have your objects in place. The modern day equivalent to this process would be putting objects on your scanner and taking their picture that way. You can make a scanner dark room by constructing a cardboard box with a black interior that will fit around your scanner to reduce any miscellaneous light. Place the objects on the glass, cover the whole scanner with your box, scan the objects, then touch up as necessary.
This is simply exposing the film negative twice in the camera without advancing the film forward. The first image taken will always fade back, due to exposure, as the negative is exposed for the second image. Neither image will be completely solid so the result is a faded ethereal double image reminiscent of a ghostly dream. Digital cameras do not have the ability to double expose an image, but you can create a faux double exposure by combining two digital images in Photoshop using layers.
Basically solarization is the effect that occurs when light is shown on to a developing photo in the dark room. It creates a shadowy dramatic effect as it causes a selective reversal of shadows and light ending up having some of the image negative and some parts of the image positive. It can, and often does, create very distinct lines where the process has occurred.
You can come close to achieving the same effect of solarization you would create in a darkroom by using Photoshop. Below explains how:
Open your file, if it is a color image then convert it to black and white, so you are starting out with something like this:
02. Now you will go to: Image > Adjustments > Curves (see above)
03. You are going to be adjusting your curves roughly in the form of a "V" like this:
Feel free to play with the curves, as you will need to depending on the image you are using. Optionally, you may add a little film grain to your image and in the end you should end up with something similar to "Curves" image above.
04. Your image now has the look of a dark room-like Sabattier Effect.
Surrealist photography is not limited to dark room techniques or black and white. Explosions of color played upon dynamic scenes can ignite the imagination. At iStock we have our own collection of Man Ray, Honjo Koros, Lee Millers and Bill Brandts. Some of the best examples of which can be found in Marje's Magical Realism Gallery.
Look within, experiment and uncover those hidden demons and those sweet dreams.
Be inspired by your inner creative self and share it with us.
Photos Credits:
Header: delirium, David Dycus
Photo Montage: denius, Denis Slogar
Double Exposure: luriete, Joshua Lurie-Terrell
Sabattier Effect: paulbaleta, Paul Baleta
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