Surrealism Photography

The photographer who created this was Man Ray.  I was taken of Lee Miller who was a photographer in the 20s when she moved to Paris.  She got into photography and art when she met fellow artist Man Ray.  They discovered the solarisation method  together when they were collaborating.  the discovery of solarisation was more of an accident if anything, someone walked into the dark room when Man Ray was developing an image and the light that the paper was exposed to manipulated the process and created a weird negative mist to the image, I think the solarisation effect is extraordinary and has always fascinated me.

Surrealism as an art form that started in the early 20s, it evolved from the Dada movement in World War I.  This image is typical of surrealism because the image has been tampered with and doesn't show the scene in its true form.  The solarisation gives a misty affect to the photo which creates the surreal affect. A lot of the features that direct to surrealism in this photograph are subtle.

A big part of surrealism movement was influenced by Freud and his theories on the subconscious mind. A lot of work was inspired by his discoveries on the unreal part of the mind.

In this photo Man Ray has taken a side portrait of Miller, the way he has positioned her hair with the waves give that extra texture to the image.  Waves indicated the unconscious.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarisation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Miller#Photography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism