How has digital tools/equipment such as DSLR cameras and Photoshop had an impact on how contemporary surrealist based imagery is created? In this essay I will be analysing how the advances in technology have changed the way that surrealism art is created and establish how this change has led to more variety in the way this art is shown. The artists that I have decided to look at for this essay is Phillipe Halsman, a Latvianborn American photographer widely known for his photographs of a mourning Albert Einstein, Jerry Uelsmann, another American photographer who is seen as a real pioneer in the art of multilayered imagery and surrealist art and Riccardo Tisci, Creative director at Givenchy who also creates surrealist imagery known particularly for Jay Z and Kanye West's collaborative album art for their watch the throne album. These artists all create surrealist pieces although they have different outlets in which they express their art, in addition, they all, apart from Halsman, are still active in today’s world. Surrealism was a cultural and philosophical movement best known for its visual artwork, writings and typography. The Surrealist movement was started by French Poet Andre Breton who wrote The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924. This movement was born out of an earlier movement called Dadaism from Switzerland. Artists during this movement were painting situations in which most people would associate with a dream as the artwork could be deemed as illogical and confusing, an example of a painting at this time was the persistence of memory which was painted by Salvador Dali. This painting is one of the most famous surrealist paintings and is one of my favorites as this painting depicts melting watches in what appears to be a coast side landscape. It’s a good example as it could be interpreted that time means nothing as clocks are just how we measure time which is irrelevant in a dream.
Philippe Halsman, born the 2nd of May 1906 in Riga, Latvia began his photographic career while in Paris. He opened a portrait studio in Montparnasse in 1934 where he photographed many artists and writers. has a number of different accolades and achievements throughout his career such as designing and patenting the twin lens camera, winning the Lifetime Achievement Award in Photography. Philippe Halsman said No photographer should be blamed when, instead of capturing reality, he tries to show things he has seen only in his imagination. Photography is the youngest art form. All attempts to enlarge its frontiers are important and should be encouraged. From this quote it can be suggested that Halsman's thought processes during the early stages of the surrealism movement had a huge impact on how he created his work as he states that all photographers should try and push the boundaries beyond reality. Halsman was born in a time period where Photoshop did not exist yet he still managed to create his work through the use of stage and darkroom techniques which allowed him to create the illusion of levitation and it also invented new ways of interacting with objects. A piece that comes to mind would be the collaborative work with fellow surrealist artist Salvador Dali which features three cats that appear to be flying, a stream of water that starts from one corner to another, a levitating chair and behind all of this you can also see Salvador Dali who is also levitating and appears to be painting something. It is fair to say the fact this piece was created without any digital tools is amazing and it can be argued that this is why photographers like Halsman were special during the peak of this movement. the two Halsman and Dali started to work together in the late 1940s creating several pieces in which they released in a book in 1954 titled Dali's Mustache.
Jerry Uelsmann was born on the 11th June 1934 in Detroit, Michigan, United states. It was in 1957 that he received his Bachelor of fine art degree at the Rochester institute of technology and in 1960 he received his master of science and master of fine art degree. Uelsmann said "I have gradually confused photography and life and as a result of this I believe I am able to work out of myself at an almost precognitive level.". from this quote it accentuates that his way of thinking is almost dream like which was what he incorporated into his photography, something that not many photographers were doing at this time. Closely after graduation, he found himself teaching photography at the University of
Florida. Uelsmann participated in his first group exhibition and was featured in the ‘New Talent USA’ section in Art in America. In an interview where Uelsmann spoke to Paul Karbinis about the attitudes he encountered when he started his career. He said that the industry at the time had a fixed perception on how photography was taken, quoted that "My creative process begins when I get out with the camera and interact with the world. A camera is truly a license to explore. There are no uninteresting things. There are just uninterested people.". from this quote it highlights his imaginative approach which can be seen in his work and that he was trying to say that people shouldn't stick to the traditional ways of taking photographs. Uelsmann was a strong believer in the surrealist movement and he used photography as an outlet to capture his vision, he said that "the camera is a fluid way of encountering that other reality". From this it tells us that the camera is a way of harnessing his creativity. Uelsmann's surrealist pieces such as Philosophers Desk, which depicts a desk in a room with a sky as the ceiling and floating boat in waterfall which shows a boat floating at the bottom of a waterfall. Although Uelsmann is still alive to this date and has access to digital programs, he still makes all of his work in a dark room using three to eight enlargers. Because of this organic approach, it makes the surrealism within his work simplistic although it was very impactful in terms of the imagery. In his words he says "I think of my photographs as being obviously symbolic, but not symbolically obvious" this could imply that he knows his photography is meaningful but is not conspicuous.
Riccardo Tisci is an Italian Fashion designer who was born in 1974 in Taranto, Italy. Unlike Halsman and Uelsmann, Tisci is a Creative Director and was not born in the time frame in which surrealism was at its most active. Despite being born just after this movement you can still see the influences it has on his work A quote from Tisci is 'I've always been obsessed with things that are half animal and half human - like mermaids and Minotaur's - because they are trapped in an animal body. And I felt trapped in my own life' and from this it can be suggested that although the surrealist movement isn't as active anymore, that there is something about the possibilities that can be created through surrealism that has influenced his style and work and in his case, Riccardo likes fictional beings and also likes to merge humans with animals.
Tisci also works with graphic designers to create pieces of work in which you can see his style is heavily influenced when working with these graphic designers. His style is very complex, elegant, symmetrical and royal. The main focus on Tisci’s work is his digital artwork. He shows through his work that he combines his vast fashion knowledge with digital tools in order to make prominent imagery. Riccardo Tisci is a fashion designer who is just as successful with any graphic project that he is a part of. in his work he uses his fashion designs and makes them more vivid and defined using digital programs. The artwork’s prominent colours and intricate lines are signature within his style. a piece that comes to mind when people talk about his surrealist work was the artwork that he did for Jay-Z and Kanye Wests collaborative album watch the throne and in the physical copies of the album it featured two pictures which depicted Jay-Z on one and Kanye West on another and Riccardo fused both their faces with what is believed to be a black panther. Some people may believe that this piece works very well as it ties into the dark nature of the album, although this type of artwork can be replicated much easier than Philippe and Jerry's work thanks to the advances in digital tools now available such as Photoshop but on the other hand it is the idea behind the work in which people have not seen which makes the piece very innovative.
After looking at these three artists, you can see that there are some similarities in terms of what they do and also differences between them. A similarity is that they all were inspired by the surrealist movement as it is evident in their artwork. Unlike Uelsmann, Halsmann had a rigid view on how photography is taken at the start of his career as he said "The immortal photographers will be straightforward photographers, those who do not rely on tricks or special techniques." And from this it can be suggested that the photographers that last long in terms of their career and status are the photographers who produce photography in a traditional way. He was later influenced by the movement to the point were he started collaborating with Dali on surrealist work, Uelsmann on the other hand had always had this surrealist way of thinking and this could be due to him being born 28 years later than Halsmann during the movement which inspired his way of thinking. Although this is a difference between Uelsmann and Halsmann, the methods they used in order to create their art are very similar as they both worked in darkrooms using enlargers to create their work. Tisci was heavily inspired by surrealism as he has always fascinated with things such as fictional beings which aren't real. He is also very different to both Uelsmann and Halsmann as he was born 40 years later in a more contemporary stage in terms of art, his methods of creating his surrealism work were also different as he had access to computers and software which allowed him to create more complex pieces of work without having to work in a black room.
I feel that the surrealist movement was very influential on the art world in terms of what was created out of this movement and how it has inspired many artists today. The movement and the pioneers of it like Jerry Uelsmann and Philippe Halsmann had such a massive impact on the way we see art. Although they did not live in an time where photoshop wasn’t easily accessible or even around at that time, you can still see their influence in various contemporary artwork today. I also feel that the advances in technology and the use of digital tools has made art more inclusive, this is because gadgets such as laptops and macs have made accessing professional equipment much easier. Learning the skills in order to emulate great artists are easy to find using forums and YouTube which can teach you step by step through tutorials how to create artwork in any style possible. Because of this it has made producing such work a much easier process, although it can be seen as a good thing for art to be inclusive, it can also be seen as damaging to the field as the exclusivity is lost due to the flood of artwork that has come with technology advances. I feel that my narrative piece for this project is an example of how much simpler it is to create surrealist imagery in the world we live in today. Although the artists I used for inspiration were not Uelsmann and Halsmann, the artists I did use who were Thomas Barbey and Mohammed Faread, definitely have the artistic traits of both Uelsmann and Halsmann. Because of the research I did on these two along with Riccardo Tisci, it made me analyse each of their stylistic choices and consider how I wanted my own outcome to look and communicate to people. I experimented in each of the artists styles so I had a better understanding of the artists I chose. I feel like the way that the audience that my novel is targeted towards will perceive the title 'life through my lens: a Barcelona story' along with the cover will lead them to ask questions such as who is this mysterious man behind the camera? Or why has he taken a picture of those people?. I wanted the audience to wonder what the book could possibly be about without giving too much away and I feel that I managed to achieve that using a form of surrealism. To conclude, I feel that the surrealist movement had a strong impact on my final outcome, the influences from my chosen artists helped me to discover my own style of surrealism which supports the fact that surrealism has had an impact on modern day designers and artists. In addition, professional software such as photoshop and illustrator allowed me to create surrealist art without having to use complicated methods such as camera techniques or working in a black room and i feel that these programs are revolutionary in terms of its inclusiveness as artwork like this were created by only a few.