Surrealism.

Today had us looking at our next photographic movement: surrealism. 

Surrealism

This is a movement that I was at least a little bit familiar with when we started out. Surrealism was all about the strange - making things look abnormal or unreal. 

These results were achieved by use of double exposure, distortion, manipulation of the negative, and many, many other ways. 

Philippe Halsman

I've mentioned previously that I briefly studied Halsman last year, so now is a good time to bring him up again. It is well known that he often collaborated with surrealist painter Salvador Dali, and as such produced many images that fall into this movement. By far his most famous, I believe, is Dali Atomicus. 

 

 Dali Atomicus.

Halsman was not only known for his surrealist work - he was also known for being a fashion photographer, and for having the most images featured as the cover of Life magazine before they stopped publication. But his fashion work was more in the style of the modernist. It's really only his collaborations with Dali that were surrealistic. 

I think it goes without saying that surrealism is one of my favourite movements. I just love it.

Modernism.

Yesterday it was back to studying photographic movements. 

Modernism

Unlike pictorialism, modernism is based around taking a "straight photograph" - that is, exactly what the camera sees without adding manipulation to the negative and so forth. Where the pictorialists went for soft focus, the modernists went for sharper images. 

Images were often taken in direct sunlight, as the harsher shadows were able to really reveal the form of the subject. 

This period stretched from 1867 - 1975 and included such movements as Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. 

One of my first thoughts was this - last year for our History assignments, I studied Phillipe Halsman. One of Halsman's most famous shots is Dali Atomicus, a shot of surrealist Salvador Dali surrounded by floating objects. This, among a few other surreal works of his, is what drew me to the photographer. Without needing to do further study, I know that I like the surreal. 

Edward Weston

The photographer that I did choose to study for this era was Edward Weston, who I had never heard of before yesterday.  He was considered a master of the "straight photograph" and was a member of the famous Group f/64, along with other greats such as Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. He is most noted for his nudes and for his famous photograph of a pepper. 

Pepper #30

What I really like about this image is that it doesn't look like a simple pepper - as was discussed in class, it almost looks like a distorted human form. And in a way, it reminds me of another of my favourite photographers (Nikki Sixx, who I will have to do a post on later) in the way that it looks deformed, but it's still so beautiful and so very fascinating. 

I thoroughly enjoyed researching Weston, as his work was absolutely stunning. And it's easy enough to say that I enjoyed modernism a whole lot more than I enjoyed the pictorialist era.