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Surrealism? It’s What’s For Breakfast

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Often in film and photographic arts black and white images are chosen to give an effect of realism. It could be to give the look of a documentary film as was used in the “Battle of Algiers” (1966) or imitate the stark realism of journalistic photography. It is quite effective at conveying the illusion that we are seeing images of a real event.

In opposition to this idea these photographs have been done in black and white in an attempt to increase their sense of dreamlike imagery. It may be that the desired effect derives more from the juxtaposition of disparate objects whose relative sizes are nonsensical than it does from their lack of real world color. Perhaps they profit from a tension between being monochrome and the obvious unreal collage of the elements. The choice works somehow to their advantage in any case. Here are three recent works in the vein of the surreal.

Timepeace

A relatively cartoonish image that may acquire some validity from the hint of a black and white documentary image. There is also a color version of this one. It is unclear which version is more effective.

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High Waters

The symmetry and odd sizes of the elements is dreamlike while the realism of the photographic collage says otherwise.  All together, I like this image relating to rising seas. The stuff of whimsical but worried dreams perhaps.

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artblack-and-whitecollagemonochromePhotography

Written by Howard Faxon

46 Comments

    • Thank you so much. I’ve been away from the networks for some months. I have lately been working on a little film project (a hobby for me) based on abstract photography. I have lots of catching up and will post about this new stuff.
      https://vimeo.com/user41845739
      I published a few on Vimeo; but, I’m in the very early stages of the finishing phase.

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  2. Let me join to the previous comments & give the very high marks to your photo works!!! It’s very difficult for me to choose favorite cause they they are all beautiful & significant, each in its own way.

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    • Thanks so much. I am partial a bit to the boats. The city where I live has a big part of it’s identity in the boatyard that specializes in repair and building wooden boats. The boat in the work is from a picture I took there. In fact the Wooden Boat Festival is coming in about a month. I love the boats out of water. The building in High Waters is also a picture I took here in town. And the clocktower in Timepeace is the City Hall here.
      I recently came here and posts about the boatyard and City Hall are certainly coming.

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    • Thank you so much! I know that you have a love for the sea and really enjoy your pictures of the fishing boats and beaches and the ocean … That is my favorite as well.
      Salud.

  10. Very interesting post and works! To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of black and white photography, I love colors too much! However, the works you shared are awesome; the one with the crow is perfect in black and white.

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    • I’m a fan maybe because they are less common. I mostly work with color. I do study Film Noir movies though and like rather expressionistic black and white stuff. (like a good printmaker should I guess.) That one that you like can be seen in color – the black and white version is not there. I can’t really decide with that one. The others have no color version but maybe they should have as they were derived from color photos I took.
      here – https://glen-faxon.pixels.com/collections/the+surreal+collage+series

    • Cheers, I have a fascination with B&W images also that I think comes from a history of working in graphic arts. I like a good monochrome image for the expressionistic qualities. I do primarily work with color though and maybe that’s why the black and whites are exceptional. Sometimes color gets in the way. I was pondering if these ones had a sense of unreal to them and if that helped them seem dreamy or something.

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    • Thanks so much. I enjoy making and sharing these and the fun of collaging my photos by computer is pretty instantly rewarding. I’m glad you stopped in for a look.
      Cheers!

    • Thanks. They are new ones. The majority of things I made along these lines are in color. I may be using the surrealist label loosely. There is a version of “Timepeace” in color here. ( https://glen-faxon.pixels.com/collections/the+surreal+collage+series ) The others have not yet been added. I have fun doing these photo collages and the computer and digital camera make it infinitely accessible. Hand made prints would be incredibly labor intensive and constrained in general terms of freedom to experiment. Tech and art are in reality wonderful partners.

    • It is my favorite as well. It’s hard though to know why exactly. I have the darnedest time analyzing things I’ve made. The first impression is never possible.
      Anyway, an interesting part of it is the ship. It is a magnificent wooden ship I photographed in dry dock in Port Townsend, Washington. I can’t link my picture at the moment here but I did look up its owner. If you are a fan of wooden boats you’ll appreciate this —> http://alaskacharters.com/abouttheboat.htm

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