Above I’ve put together some images that I may decide to use. The first set of images are photos from light room and the second set are from photoshop, which dive deeper into surrealism.

I picked the images I liked the most using a colour system and placed them in a separate folder.

Why did I choose these Images?

I chose the Images that stood out the most to me, while also taking into account how they would fit together once I print them. Since my way of presenting union was through the concepts of surrealism, I chose Images that I believed most represented this art movement.

I chose a few photos from my photoshoot which took inspiration from Mourants ‘Aomori’, because they remind me of dreams or thoughts of the past. The blue monochrome images make these images look and feel ancient and precious, like a dream that you want to keep remembering. Even though this is not surrealism, it still links with the ideas of surrealism though its ‘dreamy’ look. I also chose some edited photos, which I based the edits off real surrealist photographer (like man ray).

Below I explained, in further detail, why I picked some of the photos.

I picked this one as it instantly stood out to be as being a blurred memory. I took this image using a long exposure to create this effect. The bench is the only relevant thing in this photo, adding meaning to it and making the viewer question the meaning behind it. maybe it was where a loved one sat? or maybe its been taken as it brings back nostalgia?. This photo creates many questions which is why I like it.

I picked this one as I feel like it can break the eerie feeling that a lot of my other photos have. Its also very dream like as we all which we could fly.

I picked this one as the eye is very common in surrealist art work and photography.

I picked this one again because the eyes are what the viewer most likely will pay attention to. This is because at first glace you see the eyes looking straight into the camera, then you notice that the hand should be covering the eyes, so it makes the eyes the most dominant part of this photograph.

I chose this image as Its very surreal in the way the reflection is incorrect. The tree acts as the body of the person, or even the soul.

Virtual Gallery

Above I put together two virtual galleries, using photoshop. I used the distort tool to line the photos up on the wall. I decided to do two separate virtual galleries as I like how my photos based on Mourants project turned out, but I didn’t think it fit well with the rest of my images.

Above I used power point to decide how exactly I will lay out my images.

The way AI learns is very similar to how human learn, by using thousands of similar memory’s, or images for AI, and using them to predict what is needed. However, since AI is not yet as good as the conscious mind to create a correct looking image, it can often look slightly off or ‘uncanny’. This also means I can use AI to create an image like an unconscious mind would.

To achieve this I will use photoshops AI tool and experiment with different prompts until I get an Image that looks strange or uncanny.

For this first image I tried use the prompt ‘walking’ as it juxtaposes what the subject is doing (flying). This has created an image that looks sort of correct, but as you keep looking you notice that things are off. This is just like how dreams always feel correct at first but when you really think about what happened, your brain cannot make full sense of it. This links strongly with my project of unionising dreams and reality through photography.

For this image I used the prompt ‘people’ and it came out with an image that looks really incorrect.

Above I used the prompt, “army of people in the sky, realistic”. These images again very weird looking.

Here I will be experimenting using photoshop to create more ‘surrealist’ work. I will be trying to unite the real and imaginary through photography.

Above I tried to put together 2 sets of images a took. A studio Image which resembles an Image I found online (look at previous blog post), and a photo that I took from my France photoshoot. I used a tree as looks correct compositionally, as it looks like the ‘soul’ of the human. This links very closely to surrealism as the image is both imaginary and real at the same time.

To edit, I created multiple different layers. The first layer is the studio image with the mirror cut out:

Then I cut out the highlights in the mirror, so hopefully the imperfections in the mirror can stay (like smudges and dust) using colour select tool in photoshop, making it look more believable:

Then I put this all together with this image:

However, I will now try use a mirror texture instead as I think it will look better, I will also try creating a green shadow to make it seem like this tree is actually there.

For this image above I did the same method of cutting out the mirror and placing the landscape photo behind the foreground layer. But I tried the ripped filter on photoshop to create some sort of distortion through the mirror. It sort of worked.

For the image above, I used a similar technique from above by using the colour select tool and selecting the shadows on the environment photo. I then deleted the selected parts but on the face layer instead, This is to keep the face behind the trees and electricity poles, making it look like it comes from the sky. I have done this as this image becomes very surreal with these edits.

Here I tried moving the eye to the left as I think the pole in front of the eye takes away the power the eye has over this image. I also used the dodge tool to make the eye brighter, standing it out more.

Images like Alexander Mourant (Aomori)

Above are a few photos I took a few months ago and I think will work well to create similar images to Alexander Mourant. I took these photos after a storm that happened in late 2024 in Jersey.

Here is my first image, which I edited after playing around with the mid tones and the tone curve for a while until I got something that I liked. I chose this Image as its got kids running around and the light reflecting off the dirt road makes it very ‘dreamy’ looking. There are many other reasons why blue adds to this ‘dreamy’ looks which I’ve explained in my Alex Mourant blog post.

Here I tried it using the other end of the colour wheel (Brown/Red). It gives a very different emotion to the blue images from above. This emotion can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer and how they process this colour.

Below are the photos I took over the first photoshoot day with Tommy. I took a few photos with the intention of montaging them together with landscape photography, and some as there own photograph. I started the photoshoot with some portraits of Tommy, with a focus on the eye as its a common theme in surrealism, then I went to taking photos of hands and they are often associated with the conscious mind as the unconscious usually cannot process hands. Finally, I went to taking some Images of skulls as I may use them later to add to my landscape photos.

Here I took inspiration from one of Man Ray’s famous portraits called Noire et Blanche (1926). Bellow is an edited version try try replicate the same ‘brown’ that’s in Man Ray’s image:

I kept my subjects eyes open as it means I can create a montage of images with my subject later on, all with a similar theme of the eye being in focus.

Surrealist painters and photographers often use eyes into their works to create a sense of mystery, depth and phycological exploration. It can also be used to evoke emotions and provoke thoughts. “eyes are the windows to a soul”. This is very true as a lot of emotion of a subject can be depicted from there eyes.

Above I told my subject to act like he was flying, while his belly was resting on a box. I used the same edit as the image above, and I also took the image to photoshop to try and remove the box, adding a real flying allusion. However, I found it difficult to remove the box so I opted on using the remove tool in photoshop.

Here I added two images together with different opacities to create this transformation through time, when the subject has his hands down and his hands up. I also see this kind of image very often when I’m looking for inspiration for a surrealism photograph.

Above I used the same two sets of images as before, but cut out the eyes. This has created a very eerie looking image as the viewer cannot escape the eye.

Photoshoot 4

Here I Tried to use the same method as before, but with a different subject and using reflections, I will now try to edit is arm out so I confuses the viewer.

Here I tried replicating an Image I saw while looking for inspiration of Surrealism.

I took these photos at around 9pm after I finished basketball. Its inside fort regent (Jersey), and a week prior I noticed how much nostalgia I got from looking at the play park, as well as a bit of a scared feeling as It looks very run down and forgotten. I got the idea to take photos of it from past research in liminal spaces, as this area reminding me heavily of photos trying to capture this space. I only had 5 minutes to capture some images of here before fort regent was closed for the day, so I didn’t capture too many images.

liminal spaces are empty or abandoned places that appear eerie, forlorn, and often surreal. Liminal spaces are commonly places of transition, pertaining to the concept of liminality. This is basically the space between present and past, with old memories distorting this space. Photography of this rarely contains people, and focus on trying to capture an uncanny valley of architecture and physical places. Liminal space imagery often depicts this sense of “in-between”, capturing transitional places (such as stairwells, roads, corridors, or hotels) unsettlingly devoid of people.

The photos that I see online that give me the most ‘nostalgic’ and eerie feeling often look like there weren’t planned and had spontaneously taken the photos. So to make these images look unplanned I edited some of them with motion blur and added some grain, as well as making some images have a tilt.

I took these photos a few days after the exam paper way released. I started this photoshoot in a little village in Normandy, France. It was about 5pm when I started my walk and I planned on capturing the village before the night and during the night, using different photographic methods during each time period, for example, I experimented with long exposure once I got back into the village at night.

My purpose of this photoshoot was to capture interesting images of quite an uninteresting place. As well as unionising different things together, like light and dark, and natural and un-natural object.

Here is an example where I put together 2 images of the same house, with my edits below. The left image was taken at night, with a long exposure to make a blurry image, as it its like a memory of the image on the left. The image on the left was taken at night. I decided to create even more of of a contrast between these two images by having one in b&w and one in colour.

Here I put together the ‘colour’ of the image. I noticed while picking the best photos that the sunset is very similar to the colour of the truck so I placed them together. I think this does look a bit naf so I’ll try to find better examples as I continue looking though photos. I think this photo would look better with just the truck.

To edit the colour photo on the right of the truck I simply decreased the saturation for all colours except orange, Increased its luminance and increased the exposure a bit.

Here is another example of taking images during the evening and the night, but this time using mirrors.

I quite like this image as it really reminds me of a blurred dream. This image makes the viewer think this bench has some meaning, and is fading away slowly. My edit is above.

Above I montaged together images of electricity polls and trees.

Above are some other photos I like and might further edit with in photoshop. One editing process I’m thinking of is multi exposure, as well as placing subjects or objects in parts of the image that doesn’t make sense. This will allow me to link these images to the surrealist movement.

For my project, I want to present the themes of ‘union’ through surrealism. I will be doing this by showing the union between the conscious and unconscious mind through photography. I hope that I can create images that are difficult to tell if its real or edited by using long exposure, montaging different images together or staging images in an unorderly fashion. I’ve also been very interested in liminal spaces (a space between reality and the dream), and have a few ideas of how I can capture this space.

I chose to analyse Ray Man as one of my artists. Firstly he works closely with the ideas of surrealism, which links with the idea of union (as explained in my isms blog post). Its all about placing the unconscious into he conscious, which is similar to my plan for this project. He also has a very large range of work to get inspiration from, giving me more options in how I will present this project at the end. For example, his images with juxtaposition create a conflict in the mind on what’s reality and what’s imaginary.

I also chose to analyse Alexander Mourant, as I will be taking inspiration from a few of his projects like Aomori and The Lightness, using colour to help make my images both dream like and fixed in reality at the same time. I will be replicating his process of making images to improve my own.

First photoshoot plan

I’ve already taken a few photos when I went to France during half term and I will likely end up using them towards the end of my project. However, for my first photoshoot I will be replicating some of Mourant’s Images, but using editing software to create the colour I want instead of a filter.

Alexander Mourant is an artist, educator and writer based in London, and born in Jersey. The work of Alexander Mourant embraces autobiography, literature and reference-based thinking, to create narratives that question the relationship between the body and the photographic medium. Mourant proposes how images may deal with temporality, spatiality and reflexivity, through new ways of thinking, and alludes to the photographic becoming a terrain itself, and a place we traverse.

Aomori

“It is peculiar how forests have such an affect on us,” observes Jersey-born photographer Alexander Mourant of his latest project Aomori, which was shot in Japan’s ancestral forests. “As temporal dimensions crumble, objectivity leaves us. We are found in a still, oneiric state, contemplating our own accumulation of experience.” (link)

These Images where taken in Japan as the name suggests, as Aomori meaning ‘blue forest’ in Japanese. The link between these two words creates Ideas on forests, as well as the nature of blue. “Together they create a place of high intensity, a place which questions our relationship to time, colour and self.”

The process to take these images was to use a church’s stained glass window, which was cut to make a lens filter. This adds spiritual history through the creation process, which also adds to the rich culture of Japan. “Susan Bright commented on the religious symbolism of my work, saying: ‘the spiritual history of the process seeps through into the image, to a time when the land was a place of worship,’”

His main inspiration for these blue monochrome Images was Yves Klein, and particularly his studies in the colour blue. Yves Klein used blue as it representing his spirituality and religious upbringing, the essence of natural elements like water and sky, and the vast expanse of the universe.

Above is one image from his from his work ‘Aomori’. From a first glace, you can see a heavily dense and humid forest, with the tropical flora coving the whole image. Closer to the top of the image, the bright mid-day sun is breaking it way though the plants, and reflecting off moist plants far into the depths of this forest. This creates an very atmospheric image, and draws the viewer into this magical world.

Blue in art is often used to create peace and tranquillity, and its defiantly shown in this image. The blue colour and the white highlights shining off the plants make this image feel like a old and enjoyable memory of a peaceful time. These Images engulf the viewer into a a mysterious voyage where both sorrow and beauty are tied together. These photos feel ancient, peaceful and respectful, party due to the strong blue that exposes itself to the viewer, as well as how these forests from Japan have taken centuries to form.

The lightness

This work gravitates more towards green instead of the blue from the previous project by Mourant. There was no reason for this, but as Mourant stated, ‘I think this leads into a more intuitive way of making photographs’ and ‘the photographs emerged in a way that most suits them’. To take these Images there was a lot less planning as ‘spontaneous’ process was favoured, looking for the nature of weightlessness in photographs. His main inspiration was from a book called the Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. These pictures where taken in various parks around London.

Man Ray (1890–1976) was an American artist known for his experimental photography and role in the Surrealist movement. Even though he was initially trained as a painter, he became most famous for his experimental photography. His “rayographs” (an approach to photography and often called photograms) and dreamlike images pushed artistic boundaries, influencing Surrealist photography. In 1921 Man Ray moved to Paris which is where his artistic career started, as he became associated with the Parisian Dada and Surrealist circles of artists and writers. He experimented with many different mediums including films, Photography, painting, sculptures and even fashion.

To take his surrealist photographs, he would be required to think completely automatically, so the photographs are unconscious and imaginary to the purest form. Surrealism manifested itself in a juxtaposition of words that was startling because it was determined not by logical but by psychological.

rayographs

“I have finally freed myself from the sticky medium of paint, and am working directly with light itself.”

To make his rayograph, he placed objects, materials, and sometimes parts of his own or a model’s body onto a sheet of photosensitized paper and exposed them to light, creating negative images. He embraced the possibilities for irrational combinations and random arrangements of objects, emphasizing the abstraction of images made in this way. Below is an example where the image is centred around a comb:

In this image, There are only shades black and white due to the technique used. The Image is a negative as the objects acted as a shadow for the light sensitive paper. There is only one clear Item that can be identified, which is the comb in the centre. The arrangements of objects around the comb keeps it the centre of focus and makes the viewer wonder about the importance of this object. We can also see many lines thought the image, which keeps the overall composition even and pleasant to look at. The confusion that this image creates through its use of objects that cant be interpreted reminds the viewer of dreams that they may have had, where some parts are clear but once the whole dream is put together its complete nonsense.

The way this image has been produced emphasizes the influence of the light and shadow instead of the importance of the picture itself. Looking at this article helps understand why he took these images.

Glass Tears, 1932

This photo was taken in Paris and is one of Ray Man’s strongest photos, and was often composed with other photos. Here you can see a cropped image of a woman’s face, with unusually large tears, as well as the models eyes, with her mascara-coated lashes looking off to the distance. This makes the viewer wonder what she was looking at. The eyebrows are tilted down which suggests she is in a sad emotional state, giving questions on why she is feeling distressed. The lighting is highly exposed, using studio lighting which was likely done to expose the truths about this model.

It terns out that this is not a real woman but a fashion mannequin with glass bead tears on the cheeks. This was likely done as Ray Man recently broke up with his lover and wanted to have revenge on her. The large, glistening teardrops are melodramatic, an exaggerated sign of sadness that makes a mockery of the sentiment. It may also be because Man Ray is exploring his interest in the real and unreal by challenging the meaning of still-life photography, which links to the surrealist art movement. The eyes being the main focal point of this image is common theme used by surrealist artists as it is an important symbol of inner vision, a concept central to their philosophy.

Other Images I like

Different …ISMS I’ve looked at from the early 20th century:

CUBISM, FAUVISM, DADAISM, DE STIJL, RUSSIAN CONSTRUCTIVISM, SUPREMATISM, FUTURISM, SURREALISM, EXPRESSIONISM.

I will be analysing cubism, futurism and surrealism, looking at the manifesto, and how they are united together.

cubism

Art Examples (mostly Pablo Picasso):

Photography examples ( DAVID HOCKNEY):

About Cubism:

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in around 1907–08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It transformed everyday objects, landscapes, and people into geometric shapes.

The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro and refuting time-honored theories that art should imitate nature.

By using cubes instead of curved lines, the artist is able to distort the image, creating an illusions and changing the perspective. Cubists believed they could give the viewer a more accurate understanding of an object, landscape or person by showing it from different angles or viewpoints, so they used flat geometric shapes to represent the different sides and angles of the objects. By doing this, they could suggest three-dimensional qualities and structure without using techniques such as perspective and shading.

surrealism:

About Surrealism:

The poet Guilliame Apollinaire first coined the term “Surreal” in reference to the idea of an independent reality, existing “beneath” our conscious reality.

Surrealism started with the artist Andre Breton back in the 1920s. He was interesting in the dreams and the unconscious mind, balancing this with the rational vision of life. Many surrealist artists have used automatic drawing (creating art without conscious thought) or writing to unlock ideas and images from their unconscious minds. Others have wanted to depict dream worlds or hidden psychological tensions.

In many instances, these artists have turned to political activism. In this way, the revolutionary concepts encouraged by Surrealism has led the movement to be seen as a way of life.

Beginnings of Surrealism

Surrealism grew out of the Dada movement (formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war), which was also in rebellion against middle-class complacency. Artistic influences, however, came from many different sources. The most immediate influence for several of the Surrealists was Giorgio de Chirico, their contemporary who, like them, used bizarre imagery with unsettling juxtapositions (and his Metaphysical Painting movement). They were also drawn to artists from the recent past who were interested in primitivism, the naïve, or fantastical imagery, even artists from as far back as the Renaissance.https://www.theartstory.org/movement/surrealism/.

How to take Surrealism photographs

below are some Ideas I have to create surrealist photography:

• Photomontage
• Choice of Color
• Floating the Subject
• creating interesting perspectives
• using reflection
• multiple exposures
• distortion

By using unconventional techniques, like the ones above, surrealist photographers turned a previously mechanical tool into a medium via which they could express the avant-garde framework of the surrealist movement.

Futurism:

About Futurism:

‘we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her like countless cemeteries’

Above is a quote by by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909. He started the movement and among modernist movements futurism was exceptionally vehement in its denunciation of the past. This was because in Italy the weight of past culture was felt as particularly oppressive.

Futurist painting used elements of neo-impressionism and cubism to create compositions that expressed the idea of the dynamism, the energy and movement, of modern life. (tate)

How I will use these movements:

By doing research into these movements, I have been able to find more inspiration for the topic of union. For example, I can use surrealism to talk about the union between the conscious and unconscious mind through photography, as well as analyse artists like Man Ray to further add to my studies. I can also look at the union between past, present and future with the Futurism art movement, researching further into Italian history potentially using my Italian relatives to help me.