Surrealist photographers have often been called the medium’s greatest daredevils. That’s not without good reason!
While photography may be the visual art that captures reality most accurately, it is also the one most capable of transforming it. That’s exactly the thought behind surreal photography, a radical and complex movement that has captured the hearts of the avant-garde for many years. Within this genre, there have been many streams and trends just like in any other. In fact, as a beginner, it may be a bit difficult to determine where to start stylistically.
That’s what today’s feature is going to be all about!
By taking a look at the works of some of the most influential photographers, we will see what makes this kind of photography so special and how its great masters have defined it through the ages.
Understanding Surrealism and Its Photographic Essence
This is a huge topic, so let me just give you a quick intro to make sure we’re on the same page.
The surrealist movement traces its origins back to the early 20th century. Based on the works of the Dada movement, which had been producing controversial and anti-realistic artworks in the years leading up to the First World War, a new group of artists emerged after 1918.
Adapting the Dadaist approach, these artists turned art into less of a mockery of European traditionalism and rational values and more into a vision for an alternative approach to life and beauty.
The movement gained momentum in the mid-1920s. Around that time, French poet André Breton published the surrealist manifesto. It laid out the moral and aesthetic aims of the movement, mainly a rejection of rationalist thought and a fusion between the realm of everyday life and the realm of dream states, the subconscious, and imagination.
When photographers began adopting the ethos, they did so using the unique tricks available to them. Right away, it developed very differently from sculpture or painting. Techniques like double exposures, unusual lighting often combined with filters, and unorthodox uses of the darkroom made for photography that seemed ripped straight out of lucid dreams.
Pioneers and Icons of Surreal Photography
Now, let us take a look at some of the great masters of surreal photography, the ones who started it all! The below are some of the most acclaimed figures in the early and most crucial history of the movement.
If you want to upgrade your knowledge and understanding of the craft, this would be the first place to start in my book!
Man Ray
Among the pioneers of surrealism, Man Ray was as radical and difficult to define as his now-iconic pseudonym would suggest.
In his photography, he used harsh, high-key lighting, unusual contrasts, soft focus, and an idiosyncratic approach to chemical development. All of that combined to create fine art photography that still looks unique today!
Ray also invented an entirely new form of camera-less photography that he dubbed Rayograms. Many of these are some of his most famous works, including a long series of dissected and semi-transparent views of household objects.
Dora Maar
A prodigy with a clear photographic talent, Dora Maar was already rubbing shoulders with the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Picasso at a young age.
In the midst of that kind of environment, it’s no surprise that Maar’s career as a commercial fashion photographer would not last long.
Unlike Man Ray, who fundamentally challenged views of what even constitutes a photograph, Dora Maar sought to question established notions of beauty, harmony, and composition. Her photographs, while comparably conventional from a technical perspective, stand out due to their strange subject matter and dreamlike compositions.
Lee Miller
One of the titans of her era, Lee Miller started her career as a model. She soon pivoted to the other side of the camera as a fashion photographer. Later, she would become Man Ray’s most significant partner, collaborator, and lover.
Her fascination with surreal ideas led her to pioneer several techniques, most notably solarization, which became with time one of Man Ray’s trademark stylistic quirks.
Ray shot a solarized portrait of Miller in 1930, perhaps as a nod to the woman who helped him popularize the technique. Ironically, it ended up becoming one of his most famous works.
During World War II, she traveled around Europe as the official war photographer for Vogue magazine, telling harrowing stories of the front lines through documentary photographs.
Hans Bellmer
An experimenter through and through, German-born Hans Bellmer was what many would now call a multimedia artist.
Best known for his drawings and sculptures, Bellmer’s most infamous work probably remains the series of dolls that he created, which depict the female body in an unsettling style.
Often called provocative for the surprising ways in which he chose to portray the human body, Bellmer’s equally creative and unique photography featuring these dolls is what really immortalized his work.
Claude Cahun
A radical and outspoken character both in her art and beyond, Claude Cahun garnered as much notoriety from her photographs as she did from her anti-fascist resistance work during World War II.
Her work consists of all sorts of influences, many difficult to describe in terms of genre.
But those that have won Cahun the most acclaim would arguably be her self portraits, which did a lot to challenge contemporary ideas of sexuality, gender identity, tradition, and culture.
Raoul Ubac
Like many of his generation, Raoul Ubac worked in a variety of artistic media, not limiting himself purely to photography.
No matter whether as a sculptor, in painting, or of course through his photography, Ubac contributed to the famous magazine Minotaure extensively throughout the 1920s and 30s.
His work includes highly stylized, often distorted nudes, still lifes, and unique compositions featuring everyday objects.
Modern Surrealist Photographers
While studying the old masters is what I’d recommend wholeheartedly to each of you, it can be equally inspiring to take a look at some of the latest and greatest coming out of the genre today.
That’s exactly what we are going to do below: take a tour to get to know some of the most talented photographers of recent years!
Jerry Uelsmann
Jerry Uelsman was as famous for his sharp, contrasty black-and-white exposures as he was for his daring creative energy.
Like a few others, Uelsmann straddled the line between creating images seen as fine art and more niche, thematic works that built his reputation as a conceptual photographer.
Compared to contemporaries, his work stands out through its spiritual themes. These help imbue his unsettling and often strange depictions of the natural world with a kind of calm and peace that is rare in the genre.
Making heavy use of photomontage and multiple exposures, most of Uelsmann’s most famous work consists of many carefully assembled composites.
Erik Johansson
One of the most successful and lauded surrealist artists of the digital era, Erik Johannsson’s pictures are a strange blend of simple scenes from daily life and pure dream logic. The result?
Visually stunning photography with a rich narrative and surprisingly poignant commentary on both the imaginary and the material world.
Kirsty Mitchell
Most known for her Wonderland series, an introspective project born out of grief and a love for the countryside, Kirsty Mitchell composes beautiful image series of portraiture combined with intricate floral designs in the style of classical painting.
Unlike many others though, Mitchell refuses to employ any photomontage techniques or superimpose multiple negatives to create these scenes. Rather, all her works are entirely crafted by hand, drawing from her experience as a fashion designer to create stunningly detailed costumes, props, and make-up for her images.
A trendsetter for sure, Mitchell’s portfolio has changed attitudes and recent trends. These influences can be seen in the works of many of her younger contemporaries.
Sandy Skoglund
A prolific sculptor, Sandy Skoglund creates both pictures and live installations that seem ripped right out of the land of childhood dreams.
Unusual, punchy colors and mixtures of minimalist and highly detailed subjects and environments are the hallmark of her portfolio.
Maggie Taylor
Maggie Taylor’s name carries heavy weight. This is not just because of her creative style but also because of her longtime artistic and romantic relationship with Jerry Uelsmann.
Unlike Uelsmann, the darkroom alchemist of his generation, Taylor found fame in her digital artworks.
She mostly creates these by using genuine antique photographs, such as daguerrotypes and tintypes. Altering and layering these in complex ways within Photoshop, collage-style, lets her create her trademark visions of dreamlike worlds.
Bara Prasilova
Czech photographer Bara Prasilova has made her mark as one of Europe’s most influential contemporary photographers.
Featuring vibrant interplays of color, Prasilova’s compositions are a far cry from the highly layered, collage-style artworks of Uelsmann and his many imitators. By comparison, her photography seems almost refreshingly minimalist, though no less impressive.
Joel Robison
A master of conceptual storytelling, Joel Robison’s work consists largely of imaginative self–portraits. Most of these cast him as a Gulliver-esque character in scenes that play with illusions of scale.
His excellent photomontage skills and his ability to tell charming narratives purely through these playful photographs have rightfully earned Robison a reputation as one of the heavyweights in the genre today.
We also had an opportunity to have him as a guest on our podcast, and you can listen to our interview with Joel Robison.
Aydın Büyüktaş
While many portrait photographers have dabbled in surrealist art, architecture is a subject much less explored in this genre.
This is precisely the turf that Aydın Büyüktaş has made his own. Through careful montages of urban street photographs, he creates views of the urban world that seem at once familiar, yet contradictory to physical reality at the same time.
Perspective, symmetry, and ecological-environmental subtext are a mainstay of BüyüktaÅŸ’ work. As an architectural photographer myself, he’s one of my current top favorites in this unique genre!
Chema Madoz
Spanish-born Chema Madoz works almost exclusively in black-and-white. It certainly doesn’t feel like his photographs lack anything, though!
Superposition, careful composition, and a unique fascination with small, often ordinary objects define Madoz’s unique style.
Compared to the often overwhelming and frantic style of many of his peers, Madoz’s photographs seem refreshingly quiet and serene, leaving you with plenty of room to contemplate their meaning.
Oleg Oprisco
Ukrainian fine art photographer Oleg Oprisco creates stunning and original photographs that, while grounding themselves in reality, frequently express visual paradoxes through their composition.
Mixing portraits with landscapes and images of the natural world, Oprisco creates full of wonder, color, and more often than not a sad kind of beauty that lingers long after the first glance.
Laura Zalenga
German-born Laura Zalenga is a daring portrait photographer with a background in architecture, which is shown in her carefully staged self-portraiture, which is full of symmetry and visual harmonies.
Beyond self-portraits, Zalenga remains active in a variety of styles that range from unabashedly collage work and abstract art to more grounded pictures with a firmer grounding in the real world.
Adeolu Osibodu
Nigerian-born Adeolu Osibodu is one of the foremost voices of surrealism in contemporary Africa. His work showcases a stunning example of storytelling and emotional heft in images that are charged with meaning.
The political, environmental, and personal all weave together to form Osibodu’s narrative, which seems remarkably consistent throughout his ever-evolving and still young career.
Patty Maher
Canadian painter and photo artist Patty Maher creates highly abstract, quiet pieces that play with color, shape, and similes to create contemplative musings on individual identity and nature.
Definitely serving the avant-garde surrealist photography crowd in good measure, Maher’s work dances between the approachable and the hardly definable with ease.
We also had an opportunity to have her as a guest on our podcast, and you can listen to our interview with Patty Maher.
Anka Zhuravleva
A prolific portrait photographer, Anka Zhuravleva combines visual pastiches of photographs from years gone by with striking image series of a contemporary feel.
Meandering between the commercial and the very fringes of the fine art world, Zhuravleva clearly doesn’t shy away from experimentation.
All the better, I say, as her portfolio already manages to pack more variety than that of many senior artists!
Jovana Rikalo
Originally from Serbia, Jovana Rikalo creates dreamy portraits with the atmosphere of a fairytale. Warm color palettes and juxtapositions of women’s bodies with floral themes are currents that run through most of her work.
Like an increasing number of her contemporaries, Rikalo’s unusual approach has not stopped her from relative success in the commercial scene. We can only hope that this is a good indicator for the future of the genre!
Tommy Ingberg
Provocative, absurd, and often self-referential and full of humor, Tommy Ingberg’s world of surrealism is like no other.
From the excesses of industrialism and pop culture to very intimate, personal themes, Ingberg’s abstract work draws from a million inspirations and maintains its freshness effortlessly.
Take Away
Surrealist photography has grown and evolved significantly since the early days of the movement about a century ago. New methods, in particular digital post-processing, have greatly expanded the vocabulary that today’s artists get to work with.
On the other hand, you will find many of the greatest and most famous surreal photographers of today using an eclectic blend of the old and new which goes to show that the old adage still rings true: Whatever allows you to get the image that you are looking for, use it!
Surrealist photography is an extraordinary medium for creation. A photographer must have a lot of courage, even more skills. But it is the imagination that is the main creator. In the photos we can see that the effects are amazing.