Surrealism

Surrealism in visual art has been around for a bit less than a century. Originating out of Paris after the First World War, the surrealistic school of thought believes in the spontaneity of the mind and liberating human imagination and let it run open without inhibitions, more sort of a dream of the unconscious mind.

Or simply a visual/written expression of chemical reactions in the brain, emotions, thoughts, dreams, fear, hallucinations, madness, love, hate, etc. Andre Breton, the founder of the surrealistic concepts describes surrealism in Surrealist Manifesto written 1924 AD, as “the pure psychic automatism expressed in the real functionality of a person.”

André Breton infact came from a medical background and specialised in using Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic methods with soldiers during the war. It was Freud’s work with free association, dream analysis, and the unconscious that helped in developing methods to free the mind and liberate imagination for the Surrealists.

Something interesting to note is the Surrealists accept the concept of idiosyncrasy or being eccentric but not being mad. Quoting Salvador Dali, a pioneer in Surrealistic visual art, “There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.”

The Dali Atomicus by Philippe Halsman (1948), it took Halsman 28 attempts before he was happy with the result

Sigmund Freud although was critical about Surrealists ideas of psychic automatism and liberation of the unconscious. He believed that the unconscious ‘visions’ that triggered Surrealistic art were rather selective projections of our ego and the products of the unconscious mind were rather resulting from a very conscious thought process similar to that of a dream. A dream is supposed to be triggered by a unconscious or conscious thought as a result of another thought or some external factor and we dream rather selectively.

Although the Surrealistic moment might have been lost in time but the Surrealistic concepts that draw from the works of Freud, Karl Max and Hegel still prevail and influence the work of many modern artists.

Surrealism in photography is a rather interesting and contradictory concept as the camera captures real projections of the pure conscious mind in contrast to the unconscious thought that Surrealism is based on. Thus Surrealism in photography in its early days was very critically looked upon until the pioneers in surrealistic photography like Man Ray and Lee Miller using rather innovative techniques overcame the limitations of traditional photography to create surrealistic images.

Some of the Surrealistic photographers are Man Ray, Lee Miller, Maurice Tabard, Hans Bellmer, André Kertész, Germaine Krull, Philippe Halsman, and Henri Cartier- Bresson. Plus Salvador Dali, the painter.

La Marquise Casati by Man Ray (1922) © Man Ray

Distortion Series © André Kertész

Distortion Series © André Kertész

Distortion Series © André Kertész

Distortion Series © André Kertész

André Kertész was born in Hungary to a Jewish family in 1894. He moved to Paris in 1925, the artistic capital of his time and the centre of surrealistic art. Prior to the II World War he emigrated to the United States and died in 1985 in New York at the age of 91. He is known for his unique and extraordinary contributions to photographic composition. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition. Quoting Kertész, “Everybody can look, but they don’t necessarily see.“

Dali and Rhinoceros By Philippe Halsman © Philippe Halsman

Philippe Halsman was a Latvian-born American portrait photographer. He also spent his early years in Paris and become the top portrait photographer in France before he emigrated to the United States. In 1941 AD he collaborated with Salvador Dali for the first time on the Leda Atomica photograph. Later Halsman also work with Dali to capture 36 different views of the Dali’s distinctive mustache for the 1954 AD book called Dali’s Mustache. Another famous collaboration between the two was In Voluptas Mors, a surrealistic portrait of Dali beside a large skull composed of seven nudes. Halsman remained one of the most prominent portrait photographer of his time and photographed family friend Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe and Pablo Picasso. Halsman wrote a couple of books a ‘must read’ for any aspiring photographer. Particularly, the Halsman’s Jump Book (1959 AD) and the Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas (1961 AD).

From the Doll Project by Hans Bellmer © Hans Bellmer

From the Doll Project by Hans Bellmer © Hans Bellmer

From the Doll Project by Hans Bellmer © Hans Bellmer

Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) was a German surrealist photographer. He started his doll project in the mid 1930’s to resist the Nazi Party and their ideal of the perfect form. His dolls were mutated pubescent girls in unconventional poses. Eventually he had to flee Germany and moved to France where his work was widely accepted. In 1940 Bellmer ceased his doll project and continued his work with sexually explicit images in the form of etchings, paintings, photography, and drawings. Many things were said to have influenced Bellmer’s doll project, including his young, beautiful teenage cousin.

Of the modern photographers, works of Joel Peter Witkin, David LaChappelle, Chrstophe Huet and Jerry Uelsmann are outstanding.

Own work

A great book to read on this is: L’Amour fou : Photography and Surrealism (1985) by Rosalind Krauss, Jane Livingston and Dawn Ades. The book constructs this premise in an excellent manner.
References: Freud, Sigmund (1919), Das Unheimliche

NOTE: The images in this post are © of the original photographers and have been acknowledged accordingly and no copyright infringement is intended. The images have ONLY been used as reference to their respective works and to collectively present this post on surrealism photography as an art form.