<- Click hereOne surrealist photographer of the 1940s claimed that the category was about exploring reality in ways that were insensibly sensible. Um.... okay. Does this qualify?
I considered the caption, "Look, it's... it's stopped!" And then I considered "Omagod! It's Coming THIS Way." Or possibly, "Sunset/Sunrise". Or... maybe, just nothing?
One thing that's certain is the the surreal lives only in the imagination. Which seems to be a necessary, but probably not sufficient condition to describe what a surreal image is. I shall continue to ponder.... (rubs chin and mutters, "Hmmm....")
5 comments:
I like OMG its comin this way...lol..
This is just awesome. Like your images so often do, it all comes together and tells a story of some sort. Now, exactly what that story is? Well, that's up to the viewer. You just set the stage, directed the actors and framed the shot... as if that wasn't enough!
Every time I look at this image, I wonder if I am missing something. The silhouette of the guy in front, should I know him? Is this some well known comics actor, some rapper, wrestler? Any cultural clue that I'm missing?
The image is brilliant, yes. It's also surreal - as long as you manage to NOT say the considered captions. Then it loses its surrealism and becomes burlesque.
Surrealism is a vague concept at best. Yes, it has a manifesto, but so has communism, and ask two communists about the best way to heal the world. It's hopeless :)
Within that vague definition, I guess an important element is the impossibility for the viewer (yes there was literature too, I know) to apply agreed-upon meanings. Surrealism sets an impossible stage, presents unsolvable puzzles, denies logic. If I apply that hint, well, maybe your image is not surreal :)
Hmm ... and regarding the political message: don't fear, you seem to greatly mis-overestimate what you've lost :)
(Deb) Yeah... The OMG leapt out at me. :-)
(Michael) It is a tad theatrical, you're right. But I'm convinced that most people really don't like to change, even when it is good for them. When confronted with change as it nears... well discomfort is something that voters never seem to expect. Lettuce see (1) if change threatens to really happen and (2) how startled folks will react to its costs upon them.
(Andreas) These two foreground figures were there at an Obama rally, along with the power box supporting the guy and the poster hanging upon it.
The sun was not there, well certainly not in that position, rather President Obama was. And certainly the dark figure (is it human? Is it a beast? Is it a structure) which is almost obscuring the sun, is my imagining.
Surrealism is pretty simple to me. Someone once said that hell is a place of infinite facts and no connections. The surrealist portrays images that the mind cannot corral into a pattern. Since that is the job of the brain... the surrealist forces the viewer's mind to create some metaphor, regardless of how remote, to satisfy itself with the data which the image conveys.
Data which cannot be assembled into information is noise. The surrealist makes noise.
I agree with you than that the surrealist "sets an impossible stage, presents unsolvable puzzles, denies logic. And I see your observation that any hint at a solution, or a pattern, denies the essential irrationality of the image. You make an excellent point.
Perhaps then the caption should read.
"Seven Urged Alabaster Slime Over Reason! But only On Mondays At Mid-day."
Wudaya think?
Perfectly bretonesque :)
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