Has the use of modern day technology made surreal photos possible? In this essay I will be exploring surrealistic photos and will be researching to find out if the uses of modern day technology (like photoshop and illustrator) has made surrealistic photos possible or if these types of photographs have been around before the introduction of technology. The reason as to why I chose this question is because I looked at using surrealism in my narrative work so I feel like trying to understand and explore this subject will help me with my own work. Adding to this, I can see how other artists work to get a surrealistic outcome and how they use different media to help structure their compositions. I will also be looking at artists work such as Jerry Uelsmann and Erik Johansson and comparing their work to try and differentiate between their outcomes and try to find out if surrealistic photos were around before the use of 21st century softwares. I chose to look at these two artist as Jerry Uelsmann has been interested in abnormal photos from the late 60s where as, Erik Johansson is more of 21st century artist that uses modern day advantages like photoshop to help him creating his pieces. As we have such easy access to technology such as Photoshop we tend to chose that over using a camera to do a double exposure effect as its quicker and more convenient than going out to take 2 photos on the same reel. However, now that we have these technologies a lot of people have got lazy and use technology over using a camera which I feel is destroying the culture of making these pieces the original way. By doing work like Jerry Uelsmann, you get more of a reward ability by going the extra length to get good quality photos rather than using the computer to do the hard work for you. Furthermore, by using a camera the quality is different compared to a graphically rendered piece, so by using a camera you can create quick a sombre effect in the photo where as with photoshop editing you can’t. On the other hand, when it comes to making surreal art work using the computer can favour you in many ways because you have a variety of options and designs to chose from, however, when you use a camera you have a lot of restrictions as you need to get the photo’s correct otherwise it ruins the piece because you can’t use a computer or any editing software to change it or make any colour/blur adjustments. Adding to this, with new technologies you can adjust poor quality images by adding textures or by using the tools on the software. So, newer technologies take the upper hand when it comes to image quality and editing. However, you can’t do this on a camera with adds a lot of pressure to get the photo right, sometimes the photo can’t be taken without the right equipment. This means that making a surreal image using textures and tools on a computer is a lot easier to achieve than if you tried to use traditional techniques to try and get the same image. Furthermore, on a computer the quality will come out a lot better than on the camera as you can enhance the quality of the final image whereas with a camera you have to stick with the quality that you took the picture in. Looking at someone’s work like the famous Photographer, Jerry Uelsmann, makes you question whether there is necessarily a need for using 21st century technologies to make surreal and abnormal photos happen. From his work, I can see that he managed to create abnormal and surreal photographs by just using his camera as he had no access to photo editing software. Now days, a lot of graphics designers, artist and photographers rely heavily on using software like Photoshop and illustrator to make their photos seem something of a different planet by, however, before Photoshop and illustrator was around photographers had to rely on there own skills to create these photos such as the work of Jerry Uelsmann. He spent long periods printing and using darkrooms so that he could create his pieces, if we compare that with today you don't