Research

I decided to centre my essay on how the use of repetition can make a photograph seem surreal. I researched various photographers throughout my 'layers' (coursework) project and found that many of the photographs looked very surreal. Surrealism came about in the 20th century and aimed to show the creative potential of the subconscious mind. Many surrealist works contain dream like elements and juxtaposed concepts. Many early surrealist photography works such as Man Ray used multiple exposures and solarisation to distort images and create a sense of unease. I hope to expand my knowledge of using layers and broaden my understanding of how composition is used effectively.

The first photographer I researched was Melissa Madison. Melissa Madison has never professionally studied photography, her passion for photography developed while she attended the University of Kansas, as she wished to photo document her group of friends as she found them unique and inspiring. is a photographer from Nashville who mainly photographs her friend’s in a candid fashion, this adds an element of fun and spontaneousness to her work.

The image below is a double exposure of someone holding their hands over their face and then removing them, the main focus of this image is the man, the background is out of focus which focuses yourattention towards him. Also this dark hair contrasts with the light background so your eyes are immediatly drawn to his face.

The image below is a series showing a girl walking across a wall, it was created by taking a series of photos of a girl walking and then editing them together in Photoshop. The contrast of the girls dress with the light background is very vivid and the image has a blue tone to it which gives it a calming effect, this calming effect is emphasised by the subjects care free stance, she appears to ­­­­­­­be almost skipping across the wall. The girls dark hair contrasts heavily with the white shed and thus immediately focuses your attention on her.

My aim is to create my own interpretation of Melissa Madison’s work, particularly the girl walking across the wall. I will be focusing on the layering element of the photograph and I intend to try and recreate the photo documentary aspect of them by not making them look overly posed for, I will get my models to take a more natural stance and try and create a sense of realism within the way the photographs of them walking looks. I aim to capture human behaviour and then edit it to create a sense of surrealism. I will also try to capture human behaviour by using a less direct approach; this will let me see weather of not the image will look more effective if it appears to not be set up.