Surrealism, founded by the poet Andr © Breton in Paris in 1924, after World War I, its roots were found in Dada, but it was less violent and more artistic, Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement and its goal was to liberate thought, language, and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism 'Surrealism is not a poetry but a poetics, and even more, and more decisively, a world vision.' (Paz, 1987) surrealist artists and photographers showed their worldview through paintings and photographs that differed from the works of that time. Surrealists were often portrayed as a close-knit group of men, and their art often portrayed women as the wild 'others' of the cultural, rational world. The work of feminist art historians has since corrected this impression, not only by highlighting the number of surrealist women who were active in the group, especially in the 1930s, but also by analyzing gender stereotypes at work in much of surrealist art.
Surrealism happened a lot of historical events, the two main ones are WW1 and WW2, which greatly affected Surrealist artists of that time. When the wars ended, many people realized the true magnitude of what had happened, and surrealism was used to escape from the harness of reality and truth.
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Surrealism art aims to revolutionize the human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. Artists of this movement find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the supernatural. At the core of their work is a willingness to challenge imposed values and norms, as well as a search for freedom. Many surrealist artists have used automatic drawing or writing to unlock ideas and images from their unconscious minds. Others wanted to portray dream worlds or hidden psychological contradictions. Surrealist artists have also drawn inspiration from mysticism, and ancient cultures, to represent alternative realities.
Surreal photography however represents not only dreams but also emotions 'Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.' (Dal, 1931) destroying inner shackles helps artists find beauty in often unconventional and ignored things. Surrealist images might make a kind of sense. But, like abstract images, they are most concerned with expressivеnеss and making you feel something on a deep level you might not be able to explain. Examples of surreal photography can be seen in the work of contemporary photographers such as Brooke Shaden and Kyle Thompson. They work to create fabulous photographs that use modern techniques that continue the tradition of surrealism. Photographers use manual camera adjustments, creative composition, and unusual photo editing techniques to present unconscious ideas, dreams, and emotions. 'Surreal images tend to be dreamlike and tap into people's unconscious'.
There are many surreal photography techniques you can use to create the desired effect some of them are Blurring movement and backgrounds (Set a slow shutter speed of 160 to and set aperture f5.6 to f2.8), double exposure to help create strange, dreamlike juxtapositions another thing you can do is create a silhouette to build up an atmosphere and build an abstract mood, floating your subject is an impressive way to create a surreal effect in your photograph (to achieve this effect, you must keep your camera in manual mode and disable the auto-focus option) and you should always experiment with light and see how the picture will look with hard and soft light to create the best mood possible. Other techniques in Surrealism photography are Perspectives (which help to create optical illusions and distort reality), color choice, and contrast help to different effects and aesthetics on objects.
Many different modern Surrealist photographers use new methods that continue the tradition of surrealism. Lara Zankoul is one of them, she is an interdisciplinary artist based in Beirut, Lebanon. Her work is heavily based on experimentation and world-building within her photographs to create moments and craft them rather than just document them. Zankoul's aim is to invite the viewers to come up with their own interpretation and understanding of the photographs and the stories behind them
In this photo, Zankoul used cold colors for the background and warm colors for dresses to show that they are the main point in this image and viewers should focus their sight on them. The scissors under the water may represent the reality that the girl on the right cannot see and space above the water a picture that has been purposely created. Holding hands above the water and scissors under the water that are ready to destroy the dress implies the hypocrisy of people and fake friendship, the paint on their faces can suggest that both girls behave like people they are not.
Another modern surrealist photographer is Kyle Thompson who was born in Chicago on January 11, 1992. His work contains a non-existent storyline that only lives for a moment. By diverting the view of the face, the images become more ambiguous, the viewer can no longer connect a specific storyline with the image.
In this image, the background looks darker in comparison to a man and the fabric, which creates a more mysterious and disturbing atmosphere and helps to create a storyline in your head. The fabric is used as a leading line and helps to guide deeper into the image. The subject of the image is placed at the intersection of the lines according to the rule of thirds, which helps direct the viewer's eyes to the main focal point of the image. Because the person is the main aspect of this image, he is highlighted with different warmer color that helps us notice him first.
One of the older Surrealist photographers is Alexey Titarenko who was born in 1962 in St. Petersburg. His monograph The City is a Novel that features over 140 photographs of his work in St. Petersburg, Venice, and other countries.
This photo was taken in 1992, here we can see how Titarenko is using a Slow shutter speed to create a ghost-like atmosphere in this photo. Black and white scale makes this photo look older, and the absence of colors creates a stronger sense of a mystical mood. People are positioned in the front, however, the slow shutter speed makes them blurry and makes it look like the photo is focused on the background to show the dirty old buildings and present in what conditions people lived in at that time due to progressing poverty in Russia in the 90s.
Many artists around the world are influenced by the styles, ideas, and techniques of surrealism. Surrealism taught the world to see art not just visually and literally, but also appreciate it on a subconscious level. The principles of surrealism presented an exciting challenge for photographers - while an artist can draw from his imagination with brushes and paints, photography is derived from the real, material world. Surrealism is a familiar art form today that continues to grow throughout the world
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