Semester 6 - Folio Ideas

2 Surreal Composites

For my surreal composites I intend on doing a similar style to what I did last semester. I want to push the limits of surreal photography and come up with original and interesting ideas. I really like work that can have several confronting meanings, but it is left up to the viewer’s interpretation. My ‘Prosecution’ composite (see above) of the masked man shooting a goat is a prime example of this, as I got many comments about religion, the meat industry and terrorism, but the image itself doesn’t have a set definition.

Last semester I planned my composites very meticulously, but found this was not helpful as I ended up changing all of my ideas. This semester I am going to stay away from any set planning and let my ideas develop as I go, as this is what proved most effective last semester.

2 Surreal Straight Photographs

I have decided to do surreal work without Photoshop to set myself a challenge. Created abnormal things using Photoshop is not difficult as you can create almost anything that comes to mind. Creating a surreal image straight out of the camera is a complicated process however as the definition of ‘surreal’ is simply not real, but in order to photograph something it has to exist, so trying to make it look out of this world will be quite difficult. I have a few ideas on how I can achieve a surreal image without the use of Photoshop; techniques like multiple exposures and light painting can be done in camera but can create unusual images, so for one of my photographs I intend to use one of these techniques. 

For the other one I will focus on the presentation of the image to make it look surreal. Presenting an image upside down for example can give a photograph a completely different look and meaning, so if I shoot cleverly I will be able to create a surreal image without any in camera, or post production techniques.

2 Alternative Processes

I have always been interested in alternative processes and I would love to try different techniques to create interesting artworks. I have decided to try and create cyanotypes, as the process is relatively simple and the chemicals are easy to acquire. I really like the look of cyanotypes, as you are able to print on art papers and materials to create beautifully textured works. I will most likely be capturing images digitally and printing out inkjet negatives on transparent paper to then create my cyanotypes. I may also try exposing actual objects, much like a photogram. 

For my other alternative process I will be experimenting with double exposures using black and white film. I have always loved working with black and white film, and creating a double exposure in film gives a very ‘authentic’ appearance to the image, as it is much more challenging than creating something in Photoshop. There are many other alternative processes out there and I intend to do more research and find techniques that interest me and hopefully try them out.

Cover Artworks

For my cover art I want to stick to a similar style as my surreal artwork intended for exhibitions, except I am putting the art to commercial use. I want it to be in a similar style as conceptual art with surreal content and bizarre meanings has become my forte and I would want a client hiring me because of my unique and individual approach.

Unlike my other artwork, the cover art will have to be restricted in forms of size, ratio and placement of content, as room for text will be needed. The cover art will also have to be related to the music, or theme of the book. I would like to try and create cover art for local authors and musicians, but this may prove to be a difficult process, so I may end up creating work based on albums and books I really like.

Fusion

Creating a fusion video will be a new experience for me, as I have not attempted at using video on my camera as of yet. Fusion is a new technique which is becoming increasingly popular, particularly in wedding photography, but it can also be used for advertising or showcasing art. I want to try doing Fusion as I believe that keeping up with new technologies is very important in the photographic industry if you want to make the most out of your career.

For my fusion entry I want to focus on landscape and nature photography. I have always been interested in landscape and nature, and I would love to create a video to showcase my skills in this genre. Being able to take spectacular photographs and videos of the natural world would give me an advantage if I want to go for a job as a travel or wildlife photographer, which is one of my desired options after the course. In my video I plan to put together a combination of Stills, videos and time lapses to create a beautiful showcase of the natural world. By using a combination of these techniques but shooting the same locations I can create different aspects of the same content which will fit together very nicely in the end product (for example a time lapse of stars and a long exposure photograph).  As the Fusion video will be 2 to 5 minutes in length, I will need to take approximately 40 photographs and videos to fill that time (a 4 minute video comprised of 40 pieces allows 6 seconds for each).

Some of my current Fusion ideas are:

-Time lapse of a flower blooming

-Flower and insect macro photographs

-HD video of rain in a creek

-HD video of a butterfly or insect in slow motion

-Time Lapse of grass growing

-HD video of waves

-Long exposure photograph of waves

-Time lapse of star trails

-Long exposure of star trails

-HD video of a waterfall

-Long exposure of a waterfall

In order to get a variety of different landscapes I plan to do a lot of travelling, and possibly returning to the Grampians and Dorrigo National Park, as they were both excellent locations for landscape photography. The backing music I have decided on is Miss You by Trentemoller. It is a beautiful instrumental piece that I find very visually stimulating.

Semester 6 - Folio Proposal

For my folio I am going to focus on surreal artwork that could be sold or represented by a gallery or exhibition. Last semester I began to establish my own conceptual style and I intend to progress this further by trying new techniques and by building on my skills. I also want to put my artistic style to a commercial use, so I am also going to create artworks that could be used as album or book covers.

Fusion photography, a combination of still photography and video is a upcoming technique that is becoming increasingly sought after, and in order to keep up with the ever moving trends in photography, I intend to create a fusion video.

6 surreal artworks

 These artworks should be stand alone pieces that could be sold to a exhibition, gallery or to a private buyer.

-2 must be composite artworks, using a mixture of studio and location shots.

-2 must be unedited, straight photographs. In camera techniques may be used, but only minimal post production is allowed.

-2 must use alternative processes (non digital).

3 CD or book covers

CD covers must include front and back cover and text of the band and album name. May be inspired by existing albums, made up or created for a local band. Book cover art may just be front cover but the back blurb must be included and be appropriately designed. Book title and author must be included and may be based on existing books, made up or created for a local author.

1 Fusion video

Must be 2 to 5 minutes in length and incorporate a combination of still photography, time lapse photography and HD video. Can be about any topic but the video should follow a consistent theme and flow together nicely.

A History of Surrealism

surrealism  (səˈrɪəˌlɪzəm) - a movement in art and literature in the1920s, which developed esp from dada, characterized by the evocative juxtaposition of incongruous images in order to include unconscious and dream elements

-World English Dictionary

The word 'surrealism' comes from the French word 'surréalisme' (sur, meaning beyond + réalisme) and was first used in 1917 by writer Guillaume Apollinaire, describing the artistic innovation of Jean Cocteau’s ballet Parade.

Surrealism is a cultural movement that emerged in Europe in the 1920s, after the first World War. The movement quickly spread and affected works in literature, arts, music, photography, and even political and philosophical theories. Surrealism grew out of the earlier Dada movement, which aimed at protesting against the bourgeois culture and colonialist interests by using an early form of Shock Art; using obscenities, visual puns and scatological humour.

Surrealist art was all about expressing the subconscious mind and creating works with dreamlike qualities. It is often free from any understandable meaning, as the work was a means of exposing the artists inner mind in a bizarre and inconceivable manner.

"Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, whether verbally or in writing, or in any other way, the real process of thought. Thought's dictation, free from any control by the reason, independent of any aesthetic or moral preoccupation." - André Breton

Surrealism in painting

Surrealism is most easily recognised in paintings and drawings, as the medium is very conducive to dreamlike imagery. As the golden age of surrealism was throughout the 1930s, photography and film was only beginning to emerge outside of the specialist realm, so surrealist paintings and sculptures were much more common at the start of the movement. Salvador Dali and René Magritte are two of the most influential surrealist painters, and have many famous works.

Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory

Dali's painting of melting clocks is one of the most famous surrealist work ever created, and is often referenced in popular culture. This painting tends to be the universal symbol for surrealist art. "People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings." - Salvador Dali

René Magritte - The Treachery of Images

This is a famous painting by René Magritte, underneath it is written "This is not a pipe". This image became famous as the paradox is confusing and it makes you think about what Magritte is on about. As Magritte pointed out "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe," I'd have been lying!".

Surrealism in literature

The first surrealist literature was written in 1919, by surrealist leader André Breton and was titled Les Champs Magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields). It was written in a surrealist automatic writing style, and was characterized by rich nonsensical language. Surrealist writing also stems into the writing of films and theater productions. 

André Breton - Les Champs Magnétiques

Surrealism in music

Surrealist music is most often characterized by the random juxtaposition of instruments, often in jarring and irregular ways. Various surrealist operas have been written, and the ballet Parade by Jean Cocteau was considered the first surrealist work ever done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcaxmMftcjs

Edgard Varèse - Arcana

Surrealism in photography

The major difference in the content of surreal photography compared to surreal paintings is that in order to photograph something, it has to physically exist. This means in order to create a surreal image we must either capture the scene in a way that makes it seem 'unreal' or distort it with post processing techniques. The first famous surreal photographer was Man Ray who was best known for his photograms (or as he called them 'rayographs'), in which he would place random objects on developing paper and expose it, thus resulting in silhouettes of the objects he used.

Man Ray - Rayograph with Sprockets

As technology advanced, modern surrealist photographers quite often use photoshop in order to create dreamlike qualities in their work. Sarolta Ban is a surrealist photographer from Hungary who uses post production techniques to create amazing surrealist images.

Sarolta Ban - Untitled

Bibliography

The Art Story - http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm

Surrealist.com - http://www.surrealist.com/

Wikipedia, Surrealism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism#Golden_age

Art History Guide - http://www.arthistoryguide.com/Surrealism.aspx

Practical Painting - http://www.practicalpainting.com/Articles/Surrealism/Surrealist0805.htm

About.com - http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm

Wikipedia, Dada - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

Wikipedia, Salvador Dali - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD

Wikipedia, Rene Magritte - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte

Wikipedia, The Treachery of Images - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images

Art Quotes - http://www.artquotes.net/masters/dali_quotes.htm

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1A6juYltbs&feature=related

Dali Clocks - http://lkthayer.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/salvador-dali-melting-clocks.jpg

Rayograph - http://ultraorange.net/2007/09/19/man-ray-rayograph-with-sprockets/

Sarolta Ban - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mindazonaltal/5758878818/in/photostream/

Michael V Manalo

Michael V Manalo is a digital artist from the Philippines who creates strongly emotional photo composites. I really like Manalo's work, as it has a very charming simplicity which really appeals to me, as it means focus on the emotion behind the image, rather than the content and detail. The only dissapointing thing about Manalo's work is that he primarily uses stock images, and only takes a few of the photos himself.
"There were a lot of emotions - pain, happiness, love and warmth, glory, success, failures, torture, jealousy, excitement, rage, pride. All these converged and met at a common point in time and space and created who I am, what I want to explore and what I hope to achieve." - Michael V Manalo

http://theflickerees.deviantart.com/

http://www.wix.com/theflickerees/michaelvmanalo#!

Ben Goosens

Ben Goosens is a digital artist from Belgium who worked as an art director in advertising for 35 years. After retirement he began creating experimental / surreal photomontages as a hobby. Unlike many surreal photographers work, Goosens images are very crisp and vibrant with an obvious 'advertisement' style, which is presumably influenced by his career in advertising. I really love his concepts, and he has some very interesting ideas, however I prefer the the 'grungier' style of surreal photography.

http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=209032

Denis Olivier

Denis Olivier is a French photographer who does amazing film photographs of landscapes, people and objects. His long exposures of landscapes are magical, and the contrast and quality of the film really add to his style.

Olivier comes from a very artistic background, both his parents were artists and he was interested in painting and sculpture from a young age, eventually getting into photography and studying art at university. In his website bio he talks about how his photographic background began:

"My first encounter with photography took place when my parents performed some strange static dances with an object in front of their face. Later they would close themselves up in a special room under the house for long periods of time, and no one was allowed in. They diligently made sure that they were left to their own devices while inside. One day I was given permission to enter the room and allowed to stay, but on the condition that I didn't move or went out. I remember there was a unique chemical perfume and a red light.

I was bewildered: my parents appeared flashing a white light on a piece of paper using a strange apparatus. Then they dipped it into a clear liquid and Behold! I couldn't believe it, a miracle! They were wizards who created pictures."

I really love the way he talks about his parents photography, it captures the magic of the old film days so beautifully, and adds a touching child-like innocence to his story.

 My favourite works of his are his surreal compositions; his work is in my eyes the definition of 'surreal'. His series is called 'Dreamspace' and includes around 50 composites.
I really love Olivier's style, and his dream like images have a very magical aura to them. There is something about them being film like that makes them appear more surreal, as there is little to no hint of photoshop.

Check out his website for more amazing images, he has a huge range of genres: http://www.denisolivier.com/

He also has a range of interesting interviews, which can be found at his site, one of my favs is this one: http://www.nd-magazine.com/denisolivier/index.php

Abstract, Conceptual and Surreal Photography

The differences between abstract, conceptual and surreal photography are often hard to define, as in many cases images can include qualities of each genre. Although digital artworks often get confused over which genre they belong, abstract, surreal and conceptual photography are all different and have their own key elements and principles.
There is a fine line between conceptual and surreal photography, as sometimes it is hard to tell if the meaning behind the image was intended or not; the general rule is if the idea for the image was planned and has a clear and understandable meaning, then it is conceptual, but if there is no apparent meaning and the image portrays elements in an unrecognizable way, then it is surreal.

Abstract Photography

Abstract photography focuses on patterns, and is often taken in a very minimalist way. The image is free of concept and idea, which allows you to focus more on the texture, form and colour of the image. Abstract images are generally straight shots, but often use in camera techniques such as long exposures, shallow depth of field or macro to capture a part of the world we do not generally see.

Conceptual Photography

Conceptual photography is an image that is formulated off an idea or story, and the original concept is much more important than the image that portrays it. A prime example is advertising photography; where the image is trying to sell the 'idea' of the product. As conceptual photography is predominantly used in advertising, it is often taken in a clean, crisp and vibrant style, which may or may not be photoshopped. On general principle conceptual images blend and combine recognizable objects to create humorous or interesting compositions that have very distinct messages. Conceptual photography tends to get mixed up with surreal photography when the concept isn't believable or clear.

Surreal Photography

Surreal photography is defined as 'dreamlike' and portrays things that we wouldn't be able to see outside the realms of our subconscious mind. The meaning behind surreal artworks is left in the eyes of the viewer, as there isn't a specific concept that is depicted. Many surreal artists never have set ideas for their work, they just let the work transform as they create it. Photomanipulation is almost a necessity of surreal photography, as in order to be surreal, it has to not be something that could be seen in real life; textures and filters are often used to give a grungy, desaturated look, to give hint that the image is of something that is 'out of this world'.