Photoshop has enabled the impossible to happen in photographs. Explore how artists have pushed the boundaries between reality and the impossible. In the last 20 years, since the introduction of Photoshop, many photographers and designers have been exploring new and innovative ways in order to enhance their images and continue to develop their skills. Surrealism and experimenting with the impossible has become an extremely popular area for people to manipulate their photographs, and has led to an increase in the way a story can be told for example, and the way in which we are able to interpret images individually. I have chosen to base my narrative essay on the question above because I felt that I had previously researched a number of interesting artists that had effectively explored varying techniques of manipulation and are successful in doing so. Therefore, I believe that gaining an insight into a topic I have already had quite some experience with would allow me to improve my own skills within the program and also be able to understand the ways in which other designers work with this surrealist approach. To help explore the ways in which Photoshop has allowed artists to push the boundaries between reality and the impossible, I have researched a number of photographers that specialize in photo manipulation and differentiate in unusual and exciting ways. Some may give the impression of appearing fairly simple, whereas others are noticeably a lot more complex and have taken into consideration further technique and higher quality of their overall imagery. Taylor McCormick, Nicholas Max and Erik Johansson are examples of those that will appear in this essay. I feel that these artists can closely relate to the title I have chosen due to the fact that they primarily use Photoshop in order to create the large majority, if not all of their pieces. From this, it could be said that they highlight aspects of surrealism as well as being able to narrate a story without any words, linking in with the whole idea and purpose of a narrative. Although possibly seen as similar in style, I will compare and contrast each of my chosen artists in order to discuss the effect they leave over the viewer, as well as the questions and mystery they generate. I felt also that this particular title would allow me to discuss in further detail many of the processes and techniques I have used as well as picked up through influences, using Photoshop almost entirely, and therefore benefit me in terms of the experience I have gained as well as the way in which I am able to analyse not only my own work, but others’ too. The first artist I have researched is Taylor McCormick, and I found that her work was very beneficial in terms of her ideas and how each piece can either tell a story through interpretation or equally, ask questions. Taylor McCormick creates very surrealist, almost dreamlike pieces and I found this greatly inspirational in terms of how she uses Photoshop to produce these imaginative unrealities. McCormick is a photographer born on September 14th 1993 in Edgewood, Kentucky. She became interested in photography about 6 years ago and after what begun as just a hobby, has ‘grown into a passion and a way of life’ as she describes. The constant expansion and further involvement of the online community of photographers on Flickr, she has had great opportunities of travel as well as the chance to collaborate with other artists in places all over the world such as, Atlanta, Washington, Indiana, Portland, New York and Los Angeles. Her only wishes for the future are to be able to continue her passion and travel the world with the people she loves.
I chose to look at the work of Taylor McCormick because to begin with, I thought that it reflected a unique style and definitely shows how the artist has thought of a complete range of ideas in order to push the boundaries. Although, she is a contemporary photographer, her images sometimes seem to have a slightly dated feel to them and similarly to Nicholas Max, the next artist I will be analysing, often have the appearance of something fairy-tale like. Her work consists of a range between straightforward photography and manipulations and both are very effective in forcing the viewer to ask questions, by their abstract and unexplainable nature. Overall, her designs appear quite unique to the viewer, in the idea that they reinforce a sense of unreality and unknowingness, simply as if you have been taken into a dream world of some sort that seems to bring to life what could only be possible through imagination. As well as this, they all completely differentiate from each other; and this contrast between each image could suggest that there is a particular reason for the taking of the photograph that is to be questioned by the viewer other than told directly by the photographer herself. In terms of the materials and media McCormick uses in her pieces, they are almost all photographic as this is her main passion and how she expresses herself. It appears that she tends to avoid using bright colours and often chooses to set quite a dull mood in her photographs. This is usually shown with cloudy, bleak skies or calm waters, however she sometimes captures famous landmarks and locations, providing excellent bases for photo shoots, possibly reinforcing the idea of dreams by combining them with reality. The photograph to the right particularly shows her photographic style through quite a simple manipulation. It is apparent that this image is fairly desaturated and darkened, possibly in order to highlight the bleakness of the city in contrast to the area she is looking through. I feel that this photograph creates the idea of adventure and discovery, perhaps in a dreamlike state where anything is possible. In many of her portraits she focuses on keeping them central in the image, while thinking about her composition to allow an equal expanse of the background or location behind the model, and this can be noticed in the image in the top left. Linking this to the idea of a narrative, it could be discussed that her intentions are for the viewer to question what her purpose is in this particular location. I feel that McCormick’s work is very useful in highlighting perhaps what is most important when trying to create a narrative in terms of the questioning and materials used to do so, and definitely is a perfect example of what tools and media are used in order to expand on what can be distinguished between reality and the impossible. In order to connect with the theme of artists pushing boundaries between reality and the impossible even further, I have researched a second artist who can closely
link into this. Nicholas Max is a 20 year old photographer and film maker based out of Richmond, Virginia. His love for photography began at a young age through the use of a camera his parents owned at home. He particularly enjoyed photographing images that told a story, “a secret that is waiting to be unearthed, a memory or a place in time” as he notes. While he found the photographic element of these creations very useful, he believed that highlighting the creative process and thought was the most important factor in telling the story, and feels that this his images are designed especially to portray this surrealism. I chose to analyse Max’s work as I felt that it would provide me with a lot of ideas and directions in which I could take my own creations. His work appears to create an almost fairy-tale like setting while incorporating elements such as scale and proportion. These factors contribute greatly to the story telling he aims to create with his pieces. I think that the locations he plans and uses to base each photograph in, very much illustrate the initial purpose of his ideas, and I believe that each design can be seen as highly influential, outlining a story as well as extremely creative thought process. His work is heavily photographic based and does not often appear to involve any other materials or media, however I feel that his strong focus on only this one element allows him to create a much more meaningful piece, expressing his love and talent for this passion. Photography is Max’s main source of illustrating each storyline, forcing the viewer to immediately ask themselves possibly unanswerable questions about the image. He commonly appears to capture movement in many of his designs, and this can be seen very effectively in the previous example showing a hand and falling glass. To create these he has taken into great consideration many photographic elements as well as the questions he plans to provide the viewer with. This photograph in particular really captures delicacy, despite the glass which is more than often seen as perhaps dangerous and sharp, and the contrast between the two of these is what enforces the unknowingness even more. The colouring of his work is often quite dull, as exampled with this image and adding this to the strong focus on what he believes is most important, allows you to become involved with the possible story behind each image. Perhaps it could even be asked whether each piece is some sort of representation of certain events or feelings taken place in his own life, that he believes the best way to bring to life is through creative imagery. I definitely feel that Max’s work is very effective in showing how to create a piece that can connect in some way to the viewer, asking them very clear questions about its sometimes abstractedness. He also highlights through his imagery that perhaps the actual model, object or main focus in the piece, can actually be very simple and that more than often, it is the locations and backgrounds he uses that appear to bring it to life and really force its creativity, showing that for Max personally, Photoshop is not the only key tool that allows his manipulations to be of success.
The idea of surrealism first came about in 1924 as a movement through the work of poet Andre Breton, a piece entitled ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’. Without the introduction of photography into this process, Breton had aimed to capture these fascinating moments of psychic intensity in order to create an image in the mind of the individual that appeared visually beautiful. As well as this, he incorporated elements of unimaginableness into these that were only possible to see with an imagination or in a dreamlike state. Photography became relevant to this process around the 1930’s and in early work, examples of techniques such as double exposures, combination printing, montage and solarisation began to advance ideas of surrealism. Dora Maar was born in Paris on November 22nd, 1907. At the age of 19 she began pursuing her interest in art by studying painting and photography. I have chosen to look at the very early surrealist work by this artist, to show that even before the invention of Photoshop, manipulation to photographs was capable and achieved through different methods. Maar’s father was a successful architect, which had possibly influenced her creativity. In 1926 she enrolled in photography school, and then at the ‘Academie Julian’. Her interests eventually led her solely into the path of photography which led her to meet artist Pablo Picasso, and finding herself to have quite a close relationship with him. This recognition and influence over her work, caused her to become a part of the surrealist movement and eventually had her first photography exhibition at the ‘Galerie de Beaune’ in Paris in 1937. The success of her career led to producing some remarkable pieces that included photo montages such as the piece to the left titled ‘Sans Titre’ and the image above, named ‘Silence’, portraits, nudes, landscapes, fashion, advertising photography, and street scenes in Paris, London and Barcelona. Until her death in 1997, she continued to produce more and more surrealist pieces, reinforcing her artistic passion. This contrasts quite a lot from the modern world, as due to the ease of accessing photographic equipment and software’s today, there are so many existing and upcoming artists, such as McCormick and Max, who have all developed their own individual style leading to their success within photo surrealism. Over 100 years ago, there would have been a high lack of accessibility to such tools and therefore, although surrealism was possible many years ago, Photoshop has definitely enabled individuals to go one step further so the world begins to question what is real and what isn’t. In contrast to Maar, I have provided another example of an artist that produces related work, however is much more contemporary. I thought that it may be useful to compare and contrast artists that create similar work but are based in two alternate ages. This way, it will be possible to work out whether the type of work produced is a result of personal expression or instead perhaps due to influences at the time of their career. Erik Johansson is a full time photographer and
retoucher from Sweden, but mainly based in Berlin, Germany. He works on both personal and commissioned projects as well as sometimes creating street illusions. Instead of capturing moments, he prefers to capture his own ideas, and photography is just a way to collect material in order to realize the ideas in his mind. Johansson feels inspired by things around him in daily life, and so although one picture may contain hundreds of layers, he aims for it to appear captured in the moment. Every new project for this photographer is a new challenge and his goal is to realize it as realistic as possible. Having understanding of each step of the process gives him complete control of the whole work flow, enabling him to create almost anything that you can imagine. I chose to look at Johansson’s work because I felt that his pieces were more complex than previous photo manipulations I had looked at, such as those by McCormick and Max who primarily work with photography, for example, Max’s piece with the broken glass, and I felt could possibly give me more of an insight into the tools and techniques used by photographers in order to create these. Johansson’s work has a very contemporary almost futuristic feel to it due to the complete sense of unreality within them and combination of subjects he decides to manipulate together. Many of his pieces appear quite relevant to the modern world, each appearing almost as an illusion because of their complexity. I felt that this would be interesting to compare with the work of Maar, due to the fact that he primarily relies on Photoshop in order to create each piece, whereas Maar depends only on practical methods that involve incorporating other elements of both art and photography together in order to create something surreal. This would have taken longer to finalise compared to using the digital tools on Photoshop; however can both be seen to question the viewer and be interpreted in different ways. Both artists aim to produce surrealism in their work; however it can be considered here how many photographers went about producing the same effects in the early 1900’s, where technology was not as advanced and people were more inspired by perhaps influences of the world they lived in. Many of the techniques used by artists previously before such computer technology had been invented or accessible to the average individual, are now easily produced through the tools on Photoshop, other than created manually. Johansson’s work seems to be the most contemporary out of the range of artists I have looked at and although his designs immediately appear surreal, they also have an element of reality due to the way they have so carefully been pieced together with accuracy using the tools on Photoshop. The colours in his images are often very bright and enhanced and sometimes appear slightly futuristic, which shows that he is not only being influenced by the present, but of the possibilities of the future also. I notice clearly with his work that each image,
because of their complete surrealist approach, cause you to think, interpret, and also work out whether it perhaps highlights a story or event, either personal to him or known all around the world. The piece to the left entitled ‘Breaking Up’ could be an example of this as it may represent ideas about global warming and climate change and that due to this the world is slowly beginning to break away from each other. Maar’s work on the other hand, may have been influenced more by the changes in society that were occurring during this time period, such as on-going advances, as well as two world wars. Her images could have perhaps defined her feelings and emotions but portrayed in a fairly abstract way. The darkness of them also adds to this effect, and this could be reflecting the changes and times of darkness in her life. I believe that both Maar and Johansson are both successful in ways they create surrealism in their work through very alternate methods. They individually highlight the effectiveness of both photography and manipulation, and show a clear contrast between surrealism in the past and up to present day. It is believed by many people that photo manipulation or any sense of surrealism, has only been in effect since the invention of Photoshop, however this is not the case at all. The first example of surrealism seen in 1917 was produced by a 16 year old named Elise Wright and her cousin, who created the illusion that fairies had been photographed in their own garden. From this, many more similar images began to come about using the same technique of copy and pasting and re-photographing. Other methods used previously to Photoshop were also achieved by using ink for example, as well as paint, double exposure, and piecing photos and negatives together in the darkroom. Where this does create mystery within photography as well as pushes the boundaries between reality and the impossible, it does bring about the question of whether this is actually ideal. Although photo manipulation positively allows artists to be creative and experiment with different techniques, the idea of surrealism can be criticised in the question of whether fake imagery is beginning to blur the line between what we believe to be an entirely real photograph and that of something heavily manipulated. “When people see an amazing photograph for the first time they usually ask, “is it real?” The answer should be yes.” There is commonly controversy seen in the media, due to alterations of original photographs, distorting the truth, that are only designed in order to boost publicity. Many changes to images today with further advances in photographic equipment and editing software’s such as Photoshop, are almost undetectable and therefore is it possible to even believe what we see in a photograph anymore? After exploring the ways in which a range of different artists go about pushing the boundaries between reality and the impossible, as well as researching the possibilities that photo manipulation may have a negative effect on photography, it appears that it is increasingly becoming easier to create almost anything and everything using the tools of Photoshop. During the years up to the present, it is clear the invention of Photoshop has opened up huge opportunities for artists, allowing
them further success and the chance to build on their own knowledge, for example increasing their canvas and subject matter similarly to the way Johansson’s pieces build up an illusion. I believe that Photoshop will only continue to allow artists to increase these skills and discover more ways of pushing the boundaries between reality and the impossible, through more advances and further influences of the world as time progresses.
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