Hi All,
I've been recently looking into Surrealism and wondered if anyone had any recommendations for photographers who shoot surreal images.
I'm particularly looking for photographers who create images that aren't heavily edited, so ideally not composite work.
Any ideas? 😊 Thank you.
Hm -- surrealism without composites is quite a small constituency on a historical level, I would think -- many of the great surrealists were also composite/print technique pioneers.
One angle: there are some street photographers who specialise in, er, surreal moments, like Joel Meyerowitz: https://www.santiniphotography.com/blog/joel-meyerowitzs-street-photography-surrealism-in-real-life/
Quite a tradition of that in fact:
https://petapixel.com/2023/07/19/photographer-captures-funny-moments-when-the-universe-lines-up/
https://www.thephoblographer.com/2020/03/18/5-street-photographs-that-will-make-you-smile-today/
Edited by Unfocussed Mike
Most surrealist photography I’ve seen has elements of multiple exposure and/or montage. Herbert List ( or Lizt?) did fashion work described as ‘surreal’ often using very strong perspectives and harsh lighting, quite reminiscent of surrealist painters like Salvador Dali.
Unfocussed Mike thank you. I will definitely take a look at those. I'm enjoying the challenge of thinking up ideas that I could take where it's pretty much all done in camera.. although for a few ideas I may well have to edit out some fishing line etc 😊
Lightingman and Huw , thank you 😊 I'm off to Google now. I'd actually forgotten about Man Ray.
Astra Art said
Unfocussed Mike thank you. I will definitely take a look at those. I'm enjoying the challenge of thinking up ideas that I could take where it's pretty much all done in camera.. although for a few ideas I may well have to edit out some fishing line etc 😊
I think the interesting thing about these street photograph surrealism moments is the extreme awareness of "things lining up" -- it might give you a bunch of interesting ideas on how to achieve things in camera, or even locations where something could work.
Edited by Unfocussed Mike
Unfocussed Mike yes, I particularly liked the one were the steam/smoke lined up with the woman's head. 😁 I think it might be worth while just going out with my camera and people watching to see what happens.
Oleg Oprisco https://www.oprisco.com/ is often called surreal. I quite like his stuff although it's a bit short on lobsters and melting clocks.
You'd know about Lee Miller? Man Ray's lover, Vogue's war correspondent etc. Surrealist.
MidgePhoto said
You'd know about Lee Miller? Man Ray's lover, Vogue's war correspondent etc. Surrealist.
Certainly central to the surrealists as a person. A little bit of her work was explicitly surrealist, and there are some war photographs that are surreal in some regard:
Though her intentions as a correspondent for Vogue were pretty much straight down the line.
I'll have to dig out the Portraits From A Life catalogue book and have a look through it again.
Unfocussed Mike said
MidgePhoto said
You'd know about Lee Miller? Man Ray's lover, Vogue's war correspondent etc. Surrealist.
Certainly central to the surrealists as a person. A little bit of her work was explicitly surrealist, and there are some war photographs that are surreal in some regard:
Though her intentions as a correspondent for Vogue were pretty much straight down the line.
I'll have to dig out the Portraits From A Life catalogue book and have a look through it again.
War correspondent for Vogue isn't Surreal??
;)
The exhibition at the gallery at Petworth combining her and Picasso (who was at least a friend) was good as well, and for people within reach of Sussex her house is worth a wander through.
I wonder if the family would allow a shoot around it.
MidgePhoto said
Unfocussed Mike said
MidgePhoto said
You'd know about Lee Miller? Man Ray's lover, Vogue's war correspondent etc. Surrealist.
Certainly central to the surrealists as a person. A little bit of her work was explicitly surrealist, and there are some war photographs that are surreal in some regard:
Though her intentions as a correspondent for Vogue were pretty much straight down the line.
I'll have to dig out the Portraits From A Life catalogue book and have a look through it again.
War correspondent for Vogue isn't Surreal??;)
There’s an artistic self-awareness to her war photos, and a compositional strength that hints at her background — hints of the way the surrealists used line and shape to build a surreal image. There’s some consciously constructed polemic, too — the burns victim, the Hitler’s bath photo. But she seems to have seen it largely as a straight documentary role, from what I remember from the exhibition.
MidgePhoto I didn't know about Lee Miller, definitely another one to have a look at 😁 Thank you
CalmNudes I rather like the fields with the paintbrushes.. definitely something there to consider and the challenge of doing something with similar impact in camera 😁