Project 8: Surrealism and Photomontage

For this project, we created surrealist images meant to be fantastical or dreamlike using three or more different pictures.

This image was created from 10 separate pictures and several copies of them. There were pictures of street signs, a picture of a post from a beach volleyball net near Lincoln City (still continuing the beach picture trend I've had since project 2), a picture of a trail I took while on a hike, and a picture of Carly taken on our walking field trip. I chose to make everything but the street signs black and white to make the signs stand out, and to give the image a gloomy mood. I also chose to make the stop sign far brighter than the others to make it stand out, so that your eyes gravitated there. There was a lot of editing involved in this picture, all of which was done using Photoshop. I had to edit the detour sign in particular--the words needed to be flipped back around when I rotated the sign horizontally.
I took inspiration for this photo from Alice in Wonderland--the Disney movie--when Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are telling Alice to go in multiple directions (hence the two "one way" signs on the same post). I think my final project is creative and really reflects all of the work I put into it.

Surrealism in Photography

One of the more famous surrealist photographers, David Hockey, gained recognition because of his photo montages, such as the one below, entitled Telephone Pole. The image fits in with surrealism because it is made up of several different images knitted together, creating a fantastical and creative image.

David Hockney

Another surrealist photographer is Erik Johansson, whose work (such as Fishy Island, below) is made up of multiple photographs in order to create his images, thus fitting in with our surrealism project.

Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson

Surrealist photographer Stephen Criscolo creates surrealist images by imagining up is own worlds, like the example below with the jellyfish. The dreamlike image fits in with the surrealism movement.

Steven Criscolo

Surrealism

Surrealism is an avant-garde movement in the art world  that is aimed at releasing the creativity of the unconscious mind. The results often capture dreamlike and impossible-looking images.

A couple of famous artists of the surrealist movement include Salvador Dali and Andre Breton.

Salvador Dali

Vladimir Kush

Tim O'Brien