DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but what I see in this exceptional image is more Dada than Surreal.
joe bosak
Well-known
I get the feeling that the word surreal has been so over-used it's virtually meaningless now. Whereas Dada was meaningless by design.
petronius
Veteran
Ricoh GRD3
petronius
Veteran
Ricoh GRD3
gabrielelopez
Established
mconnealy
Well-known
ellisson
Well-known
You know where I see similar things, João? Here in the U.S around the time of Halloween, some homes place body part models/imitations in the ground in addition to skeletons hanging from trees or just lying around. But because these things are expected during Halloween, they are not as surreal as what you posted in your location. I guess when you expect the weird or bizarre things as a matter of a celebration, it's not as surreal or dream-like? The other celebration that comes to mind with surreal imagery is Día de los Muertos - Day of the Dead as celebrated in Mexico.
ellisson
Well-known
🎼 "There's a somebody I'm longing to see
I hope that he, turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me" 🎼
Not an image the Gershwin brothers had in mind for their song.
I hope that he, turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me" 🎼
Not an image the Gershwin brothers had in mind for their song.
froyd
Veteran
The description of the image as surrealist works for me because the distorted reflections hint at randomized, dreamlike, alteration of reality; but I can see how the drowned leaves in a bowl could be seen as Dada. I enjoy this thread a lot and keep coming back to it over the years. I think images like the one you discussed are perfectly suited to its theme, but I sometimes wishe there'd be fewer of what I'd define as abstract images without any colorations of the Surreal.
ellisson
Well-known
Isn't considered that Surrealism had its roots in the Dada art movement? From what I've read.
Retro-Grouch
Veteran
You are correct. Dada was an earlier movement that emphasized a nihilistic rejection of Westen values and particularly the West's art traditions. Surrealism put a more positive spin on things; it grew out of the period's strong embrace of Freudian analysis and the exploration of dreams and the unconscious. Though, like Dada, rejecting much of the art traditions, it nevertheless rejected Dada's nihilism by emphasizing the potentially liberating results of embracing our combined creative and sexual impulses. Like most art ideologies, things didn't go quite as planned.
Joao
Negativistic forever
To DownUnder and Ellison :
Thank you again for the kind words.
These photos were taken in a “Garden of Arts” where they grow plants used in fabric dyeing and in the artisanal manufacture of artistic inks and paints. School students frequently hold workshops here.
In this case, an artist handcrafted images of leaves and stems onto fabrics – reminiscent of darkroom work, except that it is done in full light, and is much slower. She calls them “phytographs”. The fabrics are used for clothes to dress mannequins, as in here
Some parts of mannequins were left on the ground, producing this unusual effect.style
Regards
Joao
Thank you again for the kind words.
These photos were taken in a “Garden of Arts” where they grow plants used in fabric dyeing and in the artisanal manufacture of artistic inks and paints. School students frequently hold workshops here.
In this case, an artist handcrafted images of leaves and stems onto fabrics – reminiscent of darkroom work, except that it is done in full light, and is much slower. She calls them “phytographs”. The fabrics are used for clothes to dress mannequins, as in here
Some parts of mannequins were left on the ground, producing this unusual effect.style
Regards
Joao
Joao
Negativistic forever
Joao
Negativistic forever
Ororaro
Well-known
If we change “surrealism” for Doo-doo, might it suddenly become super meaningful?
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Where I come from, "doo-doo" means something entirely different and most definitely not Surrealist.
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
Some more random images from my archives.
I admit to having rather odd notions about Surrealism. As much as I admire the esoteric images taken by the very talented photographers who have posted in this thread, the architect in me demands precise compositions. I agonise over correctly vertical verticals and I want everything razor sharp. I'm now working to change all this, but old habits die hard.
On to my photos now. I hope you enjoy them.
Ballarat, Australia, 2020. Queens large and small.
Surabaya, 2023. Captioning this one is difficult. The odd wheeled thing is a becak, a uniquely Indonesian three-wheel passenger transporter pedaled by a (usually Madurese) driver. In Java, almost every vacant lot quickly turns into a garbage dump.
Ballarat, Australia, 2020. At least he admits it.
Two views taken in 2020 from train windows. I like aimlessly wandering around our state (Victoria in Australia) by rail. Views from the windows can be mysterious, even strange. Surreal, well.
View 1. Near Ballarat. Early morning on a cold winter day.
View 2. Near Ballan.
Technicals - Nikon D800, 28/2.8D and Panasonic Lumix GF1, 14-42 zoom. Both eternally set on f8, ISO 200.
(The images from my now-ancient GF1 truly amaze me. A greatly underrated camera.)
I admit to having rather odd notions about Surrealism. As much as I admire the esoteric images taken by the very talented photographers who have posted in this thread, the architect in me demands precise compositions. I agonise over correctly vertical verticals and I want everything razor sharp. I'm now working to change all this, but old habits die hard.
On to my photos now. I hope you enjoy them.
Ballarat, Australia, 2020. Queens large and small.
Surabaya, 2023. Captioning this one is difficult. The odd wheeled thing is a becak, a uniquely Indonesian three-wheel passenger transporter pedaled by a (usually Madurese) driver. In Java, almost every vacant lot quickly turns into a garbage dump.
Ballarat, Australia, 2020. At least he admits it.
Two views taken in 2020 from train windows. I like aimlessly wandering around our state (Victoria in Australia) by rail. Views from the windows can be mysterious, even strange. Surreal, well.
View 1. Near Ballarat. Early morning on a cold winter day.
View 2. Near Ballan.
Technicals - Nikon D800, 28/2.8D and Panasonic Lumix GF1, 14-42 zoom. Both eternally set on f8, ISO 200.
(The images from my now-ancient GF1 truly amaze me. A greatly underrated camera.)
Last edited:
Ororaro
Well-known
Yes… but the word surrealism becoming meaningless makes it doo-doo. And by naming it doo-doo gives it meaning, thus saving it from the doo-doo by calling it doo-doo.