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08/15/2014 12:37:54 AM · #1 |
Surrealism
This sounds fun! |
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08/15/2014 07:46:43 AM · #2 |
I sooo wanted to try my hand at this!! I even had the PERFECT set up for it too! but nevertheless, I will see what happens when we get back.. I was really, really looking forward to the creativity on this and to really try my new skills which I learned in photoshop because I just upgraded to PS5!!!
I just wish it could have waited for another week.. If I am allowed, I will submit in the outtakes of what I was going to do, have fun!!!
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08/16/2014 05:29:38 PM · #3 |
I know we're all competing for third place after Gyaban and Samantha_T... but it'll be fun working toward that one spot! :D
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08/16/2014 05:39:21 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by Lydia:
I know we're all competing for third place after Gyaban and Samantha_T... but it'll be fun working toward that one spot! :D |
Funny, was thinking the same thing. |
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08/16/2014 05:50:36 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Garry:
Originally posted by Lydia:
I know we're all competing for third place after Gyaban and Samantha_T... but it'll be fun working toward that one spot! :D |
Funny, was thinking the same thing. |
Ditto |
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08/16/2014 05:57:57 PM · #6 |
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08/16/2014 11:23:33 PM · #7 |
| I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm going for that first spot! |
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08/16/2014 11:39:21 PM · #8 |
Yay! ... uhh... which one is yours, Alice??
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08/17/2014 01:25:43 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by Lydia:
Yay! ... uhh... which one is yours, Alice?? |
It's right there!
the purtiest and best of the lot. |
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08/17/2014 11:27:43 AM · #10 |
The current challenge description dwells on physical reality, suggesting that Surrealism is opposed to the physical, as if the Surrealists were a bunch of monks smacking themselves on the head with large Bibles.
Surrealism began in France as little more than an imitation of Dada. Dada was a European movement of rebellion against the arts, actually, a rebellion against culture itself. Their primary goal was to offend the audience.
So, Dada was Punk and Surrealism was New Wave, i.e. a more cerebral, more artistic, and more extravagant version of Punk. Dada and Punk died out because they were revolutions, and only about destruction, with no aesthetic for rebuilding.
Surrealism, as it strove to have an aesthetic, turned to the exciting new work of Sigmund Freud, specifically, the "subconscious." If the subconscious held the deepest truth about your psychological state, then the subconscious would also be the source of the deepest, truest art. With this in mind, they came up with a slew of techniques to access the subconscious, which conversely means to avoid the conscious. There's an entire Wikipedia entry just on these techniques:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealist_techniques
These included automatic writing, automatic drawing, frottage, throwing sand on the canvas (getting uncomfortably close to Pollock's "innovation" here), and even holding your breath.
These techniques were mostly for forms in which the artist is in complete control, like writing and painting, but what about photography, in which the camera does most of the work? This is a question that has intrigued me for years. Photographers are natural Surrealists, allowing the accident of light to fill the canvas with each click.
The pre-eminent Surrealist photographer was Man Ray, who was primarily a studio photographer. He gave up on the idea of accessing the subconscious during the process of photography. He accessed his subconscious (how he did so, I don't know) long before he pressed the shutter. Only then would he arrange his subjects before the lens.
But this is not the only mode of Surrealist photography. Henri Cartier-Bresson himself confessed to being a Surrealist. His "Decisive Moment" is also the "Surreal Moment," not an act of perfect control but an act of giving up control. This is the street photographer's door to Surrealism.
Another way, which was also practiced by Man Ray, took place after the photo was taken, by interfering with the development process. An example is Solarization. This is Photoshop's door to Surrealism.
The Surrealism that most of you are familiar with, including whoever wrote the challenge description, is the Surrealism of Georges Magritte diluted by legions of advertisements. This is the Surrealism of substitution, replacing a man's head with a green apple, having a train come out of a fireplace, or a rain of Skittles.
But Magritte is also the man who painted a pipe and wrote underneath it, "This is not a pipe." The Surrealist questions not physical reality, but mental reality. By accessing his subconscious he hopes that you will access yours, that your consciousness, your culture, the concepts that constrain the way you see, will all melt away. The more your mind melts, the higher your score should be.
Message edited by author 2014-08-17 11:50:23. |
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08/17/2014 11:37:37 AM · #11 |
| my mind melted many years back |
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08/17/2014 11:55:57 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by posthumous:
The current challenge description dwells on physical reality, suggesting that Surrealism is opposed to the physical, as if the Surrealists were a bunch of monks smacking themselves on the head with large Bibles.....
But Magritte is also the man who painted a pipe and wrote underneath it, "This is not a pipe." The Surrealist questions not physical reality, but mental reality. By accessing his subconscious he hopes that you will access yours, that your consciousness, your culture, the concepts that constrain the way you see, will all melt away. The more your mind melts, the higher your score should be. |
Bravo, Don! A wonderful pocket essay on a deliciously nebulous concept. Query: would YOU consider Jerry Uelsmann a surrealist? |
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08/17/2014 01:18:13 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by posthumous:
The current challenge description dwells on physical reality, suggesting that Surrealism is opposed to the physical, as if the Surrealists were a bunch of monks smacking themselves on the head with large Bibles.....
But Magritte is also the man who painted a pipe and wrote underneath it, "This is not a pipe." The Surrealist questions not physical reality, but mental reality. By accessing his subconscious he hopes that you will access yours, that your consciousness, your culture, the concepts that constrain the way you see, will all melt away. The more your mind melts, the higher your score should be. |
Bravo, Don! A wonderful pocket essay on a deliciously nebulous concept. Query: would YOU consider Jerry Uelsmann a surrealist? |
yes. And so is whoever made the skittles commercial. |
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08/17/2014 07:33:05 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by Tiny:
my mind melted many years back |
for
DITTO!!! I'm just gonna go with whatever weird-ass dream imagery my mind spews out for the next couple of nights, then mash a ton o' stuff together at the last minute...like always :-)
ETA: Just looked at the stats for the original Surrealism challenge. First off, it was BASIC editing!
And the number of entries...and DQs...and votes...*sigh*...the good ol days...
Submissions: 255
Disqualifications: 17
Votes: 90,959
Comments: 3,725
Message edited by author 2014-08-17 21:34:05. |
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08/18/2014 08:16:24 AM · #15 |
| Thanks Don, inspiring writing. |
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08/18/2014 10:02:30 AM · #16 |
Don,
Thank you sir real good writing. |
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08/18/2014 12:38:05 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by snaffles:
Originally posted by Tiny:
my mind melted many years back |
for
DITTO!!! I'm just gonna go with whatever weird-ass dream imagery my mind spews out for the next couple of nights, then mash a ton o' stuff together at the last minute...like always :-)
ETA: Just looked at the stats for the original Surrealism challenge. First off, it was BASIC editing!
And the number of entries...and DQs...and votes...*sigh*...the good ol days...
Submissions: 255
Disqualifications: 17
Votes: 90,959
Comments: 3,725 |
Wow ! it was a little different then. |
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08/19/2014 10:02:06 AM · #18 |
Thanks Don- you had to get all intellectual with the topic and make me doubt my entry, which would have garnered sub 5.0 scores anyway.
Otherwise, a great post and great food for thought. |
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08/19/2014 12:18:45 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by blindjustice:
Thanks Don- you had to get all intellectual with the topic and make me doubt my entry, which would have garnered sub 5.0 scores anyway.
Otherwise, a great post and great food for thought. |
Yeah, I went back and redid mine too!
:)
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08/20/2014 12:18:51 AM · #20 |
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08/20/2014 02:06:31 PM · #21 |
| Ok I am in and that is surreal in itself! |
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08/23/2014 11:20:53 PM · #22 |
Ok ya guys.. these entries just blew me away.. you all are seriously going to have to do some shop- tutorials..
Guru of photoshop.. Well done! |
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08/23/2014 11:34:26 PM · #23 |
Originally posted by jgirl57:
Ok ya guys.. these entries just blew me away.. you all are seriously going to have to do some shop- tutorials..
Guru of photoshop.. Well done! |
We already have a lot of tutorials and "how'd they do that" articles under the Learn menu |
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