SURREALISM

Surrealism is the juxtaposition, or the coming together, of the unexpected. We don't expect to see ice on a tulip or a 1950s rotary telephone hanging from a wooden fence. Surrealism.

I consider Salvador Dalí, from Spain, the Godfather of surrealism, although other artists also delved into the genre. 

I either look for surrealism in life, or I create it by staging elements, objects, in a way that makes you scratch your head. 

Let's look at a few examples from my collection.

I love coffee shops. I walked into one in Steamboat Springs, Colorado called Mocha Molly's. I had my camera because I had just finished doing some shooting. Before I ordered, I went to the restroom, with my camera and tripod. I couldn't believe what I saw! I did not expect to see a jungle mural on all four walls of the men's restroom! Before I "did my business," I quickly locked the door, set up and started shooting! The local artist was Chula Walker. I don't know if she did the same thing with the women's restroom.

           Unfortunately, the coffee shop and the mural are no more. I'm glad I got this shot!    

I saw this old abandoned icehouse. It had been abandoned for so long that nature, including trees, had taken root, inside the vacant building! It was like I was on the inside, looking out.

I love taking day trips along those small two-lane country roads. You just never know what's there waiting for me. More often than not, I will find something worth a photograph. Such was the case when I came across this farmhouse scene. There is so much you can read into this, whether true or not. 

During a long day trip, I stopped at a convenience store to gas up and get some munchies. To my surprise, I saw a cat napping amongst the munchies. I asked the owner what the cat's name was. "Mr. Tibbs," he quickly replied. When surrealism is in my face, I don't hesitate.

Sometimes, I create or stage my surreal images. For this next image, I used one Halloween hard plastic skull and did a multiple exposure. The first step was to place a large black piece of flannel material on my bed. I then activated my multiple-exposure feature in my camera and set it for four (4) exposures, or images. I marked the four spots where I wanted the skull. I placed the skull on the first spot and took my first shot. I then moved and placed the skull on the second marked spot and took my second shot. I continued the same process for the other two shots. In other words, I clicked my shutter button after each of the four skull set-ups.  

When I took my fourth shot, the camera combined all four shots into one single image-- a quadruple multiple exposure!   

Close your eyes and imagine hearing beautiful, soft, angelic classical music being played on a harp. It sounds like what you would hear in a church, at a recital, or on a grand stage. Who do you imagine playing that music? Is it male or female? How is that imaginary person dressed?

Did you imagine this? Surrealism. And, yes, this street performer was playing professional-level classical music.

There are two "painting with light" techniques I use for some of my creative work. One of them requires me to handhold one or two 6-volt flashlights and literally paint my subjects at night or at twilight. The other technique is to simply allow moving lights, late in the evening or at twilight, to do my painting. 

Such was the case for this image. It was getting very dark, but I knew that if I left my shutter open for several seconds, my film, at the time, would capture only the movement of the light, which came from cars and one bus. A 15-second exposure did the trick. The result was a surreal image. A friend saw this image and said it looked there was a dragon inside the tunnel breathing out fire. What do you see?

So, go out and look for surreal opportunities. Find them. Sometimes they don't hit you in the face, like the last image above. You have to imagine them and look beyond what your eyes see. Again, for the image above, my eyes just saw vehicles going in and coming out of the tunnel. My imagination saw what you see above.

Have fun, and don't hesitate to contact me for a field lesson, or simply to ask me a question.