Photoshop has enabled the impossible to happen in photographs. Explore how artists have pushed the boundaries between reality and the impossible. Now within Photoshop the word impossible has almost no meaning at all. Within this essay I will be going through how artists have pushed boundaries between reality and the impossible through the use of Photoshop and other techniques. Since the introduction of Photoshop, around 20 years ago, artists have been challenging themselves to explore new and innovative ways to enhance their work and further develop their skills. Surrealism is an art form, the word “surreal” is a term used to describe something that the elements in it are combined in a strange way that you would not normally expect, like in a dream. This type of art has become very popular over the years as it has given artists the chance to manipulate and play with their photographs. I have chosen this essay question as I myself enjoy pushing the boundaries between reality and the impossible in my work, and think that I have a good enough understanding of doing so. The domestication of powerful editing software has enabled the average user to create insightful pieces of artwork that defines a path of how our era has shaped itself over the years. Photoshop allows its users to create something that cannot be taken with a camera; it’s an expression of the users thoughts and feelings that allows them to create something ‘unearthly and wonderful’. Artists within today’s technological era use Photoshop to assist them in pushing boundaries and telling narratives by experimenting with surreal and impossible elements to them, I have researched a number of photographers that specialize in photo manipulation and surrealism. These artists have expressed themselves through the use of surrealism thus allowing artists to portray some fairly simple design whilst others are obviously a lot more complex and have used techniques of a higher quality so that their overall image is of a higher standard. By looking at different artists you are able to see the difference in their work, and you can tell the maturity of their work. The term ‘narrative’ is used to describe a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. Erik Johansson, Kyle Thompson, and Fiddle Oak are examples of artists that I have chosen to use in my essay as I have looked at their work before and I feel they relate to the title very well. I believe that these artists, considering they use their own images for the majority of their work, are perfect for this question. These artists emphasize the aspects of surrealism as well as being able to narrate without having to use words thus linking in the whole idea and purpose of a narrative. Narrative story telling, I find, is an expression and creative way to invoke thoughts and feelings to an audience that connects the artists and allows them to open up their creativity by exploring different mediums to tell a story. I believed that this title would allow me to explore many of the skills and process that I have either used or picked up when creating pieces of work, thus benefiting me in many different ways. For instance it has given me the skills to produce my own work, been able to analyse my own work and others too, and given me the experience of using said techniques. The first artist that I decided to research was Fiddle Oak, and I found that his work was stimulating as his images combine both photography and photo-‐manipulation. I also found her work as valuable source of artwork as you can either tell a story through interpretation or ask questions. I found all the artist’s work perfect for demonstrating how boundaries can be pushed to the limit in Photoshop.
Fiddle Oak is an artist who specializes in photography and Photoshop, he creates very surrealist images with an almost dream-‐like effect to them to tell her stories. Fiddle oak is a young up and coming teen photographer whose skill is far beyond his years. The 14 year olds work is a great example of how anything is possible. His work is a great expression of photo-‐ manipulation and young talent. The Massachusetts based teen has always had an interest with photography and once he found Photoshop he was able to make his, young, imagination run wild. From the pictures I have gathered off his work you can clearly see he enjoys “The miniature world” making people look as if there in a huge world. He enjoys working a lot with nature as well as using paper to create different types of things. His love with nature allows these images to be so effective; as the images of nature are small and we are big he uses the opposite effect throughout most if not all his work so far. This is what makes his work stands out from other artists as not only he thought of doing this first he’s done it at such a young age and at a professional level. As he is so young and his skill level matches that who’s been in the profession a lot longer gave me great inspiration to allow myself to become developed in my work, thus my imagination comes through on my own work. Fiddle Oaks work shows perfectly how an artists, while using his own photographs, can manipulate said photograph and bend and shape reality, pushing the boundaries within the photograph between reality and the impossible. As times have changed, and technology has advanced Fiddle Oak is an artist who has been born into an era where photo manipulation has hit full swing and shows how he was able to adapt to it. His work consists of a range between straightforward photography and manipulations, in addition both skills are very effecting in forcing the viewer to use their imaginations by him almost taking you there. Photoshop is a great way artists are now able to project their thoughts and emotions into pieces of work that we as an audience are able to look at and analyse. Overall, the work that fiddle Oak produces appear quite unique to the viewer, in the idea that they reinforce a sense of fantasy and innocence, simply as if you have been taken through a dream world that could have only been possible through the artists imagination. Saying this I have noticed throughout his work he emphasizes on the people and animals in his photographs to appear a lot smaller than the things around them. As he does not need a big area for him to do this he often takes pictures in and around his house, it is almost as if he tries to carry a message into his work to other artists that you do not need to have beautiful photographs to create inviting pieces of work. Not only does Fiddle Oak use his own photography he also uses paper a lot within his pictures to tell stories. The brilliant idea of using origami planes and swans in his images really reflect on how young and fresh his mind is as he can manipulate them in his work to make it look as if he is flying on them. Why I like this idea is how it emphasizes on pushing boundaries with simple household objects to leave the viewer questioning the piece of art and leaving them with a question of how he did it.
In sticking with the theme of artists pushing boundaries between reality and the impossible, I have chosen Erik Johansson to research so I could link into this. Erik Johansson is a full time photographer and re-‐toucher from Sweden, but mainly based in berlin, Germany. He works on both personal and commissioned projects as well as sometimes creating street illusions. He uses photo manipulation to convey surreal environments and to express his ideas through narrative story telling. He has raw talent and ridiculous amounts of creativity to create some of the images he has done. Johansson describes his work as “Surreal ideas realized in a realistic way with a touch of humour”. This statement that he said reflects on some of the work he has done in the past. The piece ‘melting point, 2007’ is a perfect example of that that features on the sense of realism and humour. You may find it comical as people often use the term ‘I’m melting’ in reference to it being hot. Instead Johansson took the term and thought of it literally to try and make it humorous. I think this is a great way to fuse art and humour together so that the viewer can relate to it instead of trying to think of what the artist meant. Because of how well Johansson used Photoshop it brings a sense of realism into his work because we, as the audience, can understand the irony in the photo which makes it humorous. Although the literal image is not something we see in everyday life we are still able to understand it and we can still relate to the feeling of melting. Johansson’s work has a contemporary almost futuristic feel to it due to the skills he uses when manipulating his photos. The colours within his images are often very bright and can seem almost futuristic as they have been enhanced, which can show that not only is he influenced by the present but the future inspires him too. I notice that within each of his work because of the surrealist approach that he has taken with it that it could represent a story or event either that has a personal reason behind it or it could be an event that happened somewhere in the world. The piece that is named ‘go your own road, 2008’ draws my attention to the fact that the image focuses on the fact that Johansson is building his own road with what looks like a sheet of the road. This image inherits a lot of surrealism and realism as the meaning behind it is realistic and somewhat true. The audience can relate to this image as the saying is build your own road and that is what he has quite literally done within the image. For this image to have been made Johansson photographed a serious of pictures of the road and a piece of cloth then combined them on Photoshop using a blend of effects and overlays to give the image a meaning. Many of the techniques used by artists previously before the use of technology and computers may not have been accessible to the average individual are now easily produced through the tools on Photoshop rather than creating them manually. Johansson’s work is probably one of the most contemporary that we are able to see in today’s day and age. This is due to the way he has carefully pieced together his images using the tools and dimensions Photoshop allows. Another artist who demonstrates how boundaries can be pushed to the limit within Photoshop is Kyle Thompson. Kyle specializes in photography and photo manipulation to portray surreal images and a sense of storytelling within his artwork. To do this he has taken into great consideration the location
of his images and how he captures the moment. Kyle Thompson’s style is often looked upon as ‘organic surrealism’. He often enjoys working with water as that is where you will see most of his work taking place. You can argue that the water can be story in itself as it is known to give and take life, so you could say his work is being given life or that somewhere within the narrative of his work it is being drowned somewhere. I like his work because of the questions it strikes, as the meaning isn’t as obvious as the previous artists, but in know right saying that he is an inferior artist because of this. “His work encapsulates the ephemeral narrative, a non-‐existent storyline that only lives for a split moment. These images show the collapse of narrative, as there is no defined storyline with a beginning and end; instead these images create a loop. By taking pictures of other objects and only half revealing his face he diverts the view of the face, the images become more ambiguous, the viewer is no longer able to tie a defined storyline to the image. The mystery behind these images is what makes him such a fascinating artist to study. The surreal elements that Thompson includes in his portraits allows him to explore a much more varied range of narrative storytelling than an artist could do in the past. This is another reason to why I decided to look at Kyle Thompson here, as he is a great example to how photo shop has enabled the impossible to happen with photographs. He uses a lot of Photoshop in his images that allow him to create the surreal feel that you get from them. One piece of his work called ‘untitled’, which has Thompson wearing a bag over his head on fire, may be seen as an impossible thing to do without burning himself in the process of it. Many people even thought that he did it using Photoshop however he did it using the shutter-‐shot feature on his camera that allowed him to take multiple pictures of the bag on his head on fire, before it could cause any damage to his face or body. This is an example of how artists can actually push the boundaries between reality and the impossible even without the use of Photoshop. The photo brings up many questions and interpretations of the meaning and narrative story behind it that can be contemplated to viewers to date. In conclusion to my essay, I believe that Photoshop has encouraged artists to discover and create new and exciting ways of telling narrative stories in a more unique ways. Photoshop enables artists to create complex or simple narrative stories in uncanny and surreal ways, however to create a good piece you need to be able to use a wide variety of skills including photography as you can create images that look like they’ve been Photo shopped that haven’t with just a camera . Although it is possible to create something with a surreal feeling to it, artists would need a keen mind and a computer to create something which would be impossible to create realistically. Photoshop is a way for creative artists to use their imagination to produce new and inspiring art for their viewers and other artists and also exploring different ideas for new narrative story ideas.
Bibliography http://kylejthompson.tumblr.com/image/97404024690 http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/05/fiddleoak-‐1.jpg http://erikjohanssonphoto.com/about/faq-‐biography/ http://www.kylethompsonphotography.com/biography http://www.emptykingdom.com/featured/ek-‐interview-‐kyle-‐thompson/