Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920's, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality."
-Erik Johansson-
Erik Johansson is a photographer and retoucher from Sweden based in Berlin, Germany. He is working on both personal and commissioned projects with clients all around the world. Erik doesn't capture moments, he captures ideas through surrealism photography. With the help of his camera and Photoshop the goal is to make it look as realistic as possible for people to believe.
From these eight photographs I mainly like the first one because it's almost like an optical illusion for the brain, it's difficult to wrap my mind around what's happening. The last photograph inspires me, it gives me ideas for my own photography.
-Tommy Ingberg-
"For me, surrealism is about trying to explain something abstract like a feeling or a thought, expressing the subconscious with a picture. For my work I use my own inner life, thoughts and feelings as seeds to my pictures. In that sense the work is very personal, almost like a visual diary. Despite this subjectiveness in the process I hope that the work can engage the viewer in her or his own terms. I want the viewers to produce their own questions and answers when looking at the pictures, my own interpretations are really irrelevant in this context. "
Tommy Ingberg is a photographer and visual artist, born 1980 in Sweden. He works with photography and digital image editing, creating minimalistic and self-reflecting surreal photo montages dealing with human nature, feelings and thoughts. His photography is always black and white, it has a sense of creepiness and maybe loneliness.
These are the few photographs that caught my eye, I like them because they're all black and white, which I think adds more meaning and darkness.
photographs that inspired me
These six photographs are my overall favourites for surrealism photography because even though they look weird they have a very big affect, they look odd, but good at the same time.
My own photography
shoot one
Plan-
-A rock
-Space to take a picture
-A person
-Camera
-Photoshop
-A rock
-Space to take a picture
-A person
-Camera
-Photoshop
In the making
Outcome
This photograph was produced as my first surrealism shoot I feel like this is a very big improvement from my previous shoot . In this photograph you can see a person with a rock above their head, as if it's going to fall on them. You usually don't have rocks above your head so that's what makes it surreal. I made it black and white so that it would have a more 'dramatic' atmosphere. A rock following you around wouldn't be nice, but it could also act as a defense mechanisms, or to show how strong the person is.
perfection
This is a very strong photograph for a first shoot, the focus is very strong, however, I'd change the location to somewhere isolated to give it a spookier photograph.
cringe
In this shoot the only fault is that her hands bare too low down, where as they should be higher up as if she was about to get squashed by a rock.
shoot two
Plan-
-A drinking bottle
-Space to take a picture
-A person
-Camera
-Photoshop
- Mini studio
-A drinking bottle
-Space to take a picture
-A person
-Camera
-Photoshop
- Mini studio
In the making
Final Outcome
This photograph was produced as my second surrealism shoot I feel like this is the best shoot so far . In this photograph you can see a person stuck in a bottle, which is very unusual so that's what gives it the surrealism. If I was to change this shoot I would find a way to cover the gap between the top part of the body and the bottom part, with a hand or thumb, as if somebody is holding the bottle.
perfection
This is the photograph I used in my edited final piece because it's a strong photograph, the colours are a contrast to the background, which makes the bottle stand out.
cringe
In this photograph the exposure is too high, therefore the photograph is very bright and out of colour.
shoot three
Plan-
-A mini studio
-Space to take a picture
-A person
-Camera
-Photoshop
- Drawing of butterflies
- Galaxy background
- Book
-A mini studio
-Space to take a picture
-A person
-Camera
-Photoshop
- Drawing of butterflies
- Galaxy background
- Book
In the making
outcome
This photograph was produced as my third shoot I feel like this is the best shoot so far . In this photograph you can see a person standing with a book and drawn butterflies flying out, giving it a very magical feeling which is where the surrealism comes in. In this shoot I made two versions to experiment with different backgrounds. I liked the first edited version of it because it seems more original, however, the second version is more surreal. If I was to redo this shoot I'd make the drawn butterflies with brighter colours so that they would be the opposite colour of the background because now the butterflies almost blend in with the background. I enjoyed working on this shoot because it tested my Photoshop skills and allowed me to think about what I want to do with the images.
perfection
This is a great photograph because the location is suitable, her hair is slightly blown by the wind, which makes it seem like the book is blowing at her, which is a fantastic effect for this shoot.
cringe
I don't like this shoot because of the white balance, I was trying to see whether a different white balance would make the photograph stronger, however in the end I didn't like it.
shoot four
Plan-
-White A3 piece of paper to use as background
-A hand
-A book
-A camera
-Photoshop
- Mini studio
-White A3 piece of paper to use as background
-A hand
-A book
-A camera
-Photoshop
- Mini studio
In the making
cringe
I don't like this photograph because of the white balance, it makes the photograph look yellow, where as I need it to have original colouring.
outcome
This photograph was produced as my fourth and final surrealism shoot I feel like this is very good for a first time. In this photograph you see a hand ripped through the book making it seem like there's something living inside the book, giving it a creepy atmosphere, I would link the quote "Don't judge a book by it's cover" because that makes it seem like the book has feelings and it isn't just yellow/brown dull pages with black printed writing. To change this shoot I would work on my editing skills, especially cropping the hand out.
evaluation
Weird and wonderful allowed me to let my imagination go wild, it let me think outside the box, which I really enjoyed. It also let me learn new skills, I could use Photoshop to make my photographs stronger, this taught me things I didn't know before. Overall it was a fantastic unit.