edit of history of photography paper

Photography has been accorded a significant place in art theory and history, particularly with respect to the t h Century development of the avant-garde. One of the major factors that have played a crucial role in the history and development of photography is surrealism. Surrealism in photography has come a long way since the 1920s when photographers started to transform their work from illustrations of the real world to something unreal and bizarre. In the history of photography, surreal photographers have developed concepts and pieces of work that seek to transmit the world beyond the real into a bizarre and unusual one. The 60’s were marked by Helmut Newton, Henri Cartier Bresson and Guy Bourdin. The surrealist photographers of this time coincided historically and despite their peculiar style three of them unintentionally transformed photography through surrealism. They transcended the “conventional” photography of the time because of their unique ways of manipulating the medium. Thus their individual approach enlarged the public sense on what photography can do. How is their work a realization of surrealism in photography?

One of the major elements in the development and growth of photography is surrealism. Surrealism in photography was characterized by attempts by photographers to influence on the notions of reality. In essence, surrealism in photography entailed the creation of pieces of work and illustrations that sought to transform the real world into something unreal and bizarre. Consequently, surreal photography was hostile to the early forms of photography that were practiced during the early years of its introduction. For many photographers, surrealism provided a significant avenue for transformation of their work and challenging existing norms and viewpoints.

Surrealism took center stage in photography in the post-war 1950s, particularly in fashion photography. The gradual change contributed to the gender equality and use of color to create mood and excitement in fashion photography by the 1960s and 1970s. The transformation of fashion photography through adoption of surrealism was reflected in the styles and works of various photographers such as Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin. Since then, the culture and tradition of surrealist photography has not only taken root and flourished, but also significantly influenced contemporary photography.

Helmut Newton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Guy Bourdin are photographers who played a crucial role in the adoption of surrealism in the field of photography. They utilized peculiar styles for their work and coincided historically to unintentionally transform photography through surrealism and are regarded as the godfathers of fashion photography. Through their unique ways of manipulating the medium, these three photographers transcended the then photography in a manner that enlarged public perception and views of photography and what it can do. Newton, and Bourdin’s work reflected surrealism in photography based on the styles they utilized by transforming the meaning and function of fashion photography, even of them elevating this previously utilitarian work into an art form. Helmut Newton utilized brutal realism style for his fashion photography since he was determined to push the limits of sexuality as far as it could go. Guy Bourdin also utilized imagery but in a different way, fusing violence, sex, and innocence in provocative and surrealistic ways.

Unlike the photographers of his time, Newton’s style was provocative and dangerous. Newton was a German “high fashion photographer whose subversive approach to subject matter and form brought an edge to his editorial spreads”. Thus embedded into the mainstream world of philosophies of fashion photography. The influences of Helmut Newton’s work in fashion photography are still in evidence today. Newton used “taboo subjects” in provocative ways, something that would have been?Queer in the 1960’s and 1970’s, when he worked. Interested in presenting sexuality in new ways, fusing sex and fashion, Newton’s work also has a surrealist edge. For example, in the image in the bottom left, there is a woman flexing her bicep in a classically male pose. Her breasts are bare, with rope wrapped tightly around and across her torso. She wears long black gloves, signifying her sexual power. Along with the rope, the gloves represent sexual power via the use of bondage and fetish. It is a surreal image in that it upsets traditional imagery of women depicted as tender, soft, and subservient. Likewise, she appears like a Greek god or a male superpower, and yet she is fully female. She is not androgynous or asexual in the least, but she is taking back her power as a woman and refuses to allow the male gaze to alter her self-image or how the audience will view her. Thus, male and female are juxtaposed in surreal ways; Newton makes a strong statement about gender roles, norms, and power.

Surrealism and sexuality are used together in most of Newton’s imagery. In the image to the upper right, Newton uses mirror to achieve surrealistic effect. The viewer does not know whether the form in the mirror is a reflection or if it is another photograph, framed. The nude whose back is toward the viewer becomes the voyeur. Newton essentially transposes the male gaze onto a female, and now she is in control of how she is depicted, as well as how her sexuality is framed in the image in the background. There appears also to be a couple embraced; the woman is watching them. The many layers of sexuality, gender, and voyeurism here are hallmarks of Newton’s provocative surrealistic style. Similarly, the woman in the upper left dangles a phallic symbol from her lip: the cigarette. Surrealists drew much from psychoanalytic theories of the mind and the subconscious, the repository of dreams, desires, and sexual urges. This image is of the oral fixation.

(Image from Charmoy)

In this image, a nude female stands with her back to the viewer. She is at the precipice of a pool, a symbol of the unconscious mind. A director’s chair is placed to her right, facing the viewer. It is incongruous and out of place, and yet it symbolizes the empowerment of the female—the female as the director. As with other Helmut images, the female becomes the director of the scene. Helmut Newton consciously removes the male gaze.

Newton’s work reflected surrealism through portraying the underlying tensions regarding the myths, images, and fantasies of sexuality. Newton’s signature style of photography was a unique combination of sex and theater. He often took explicit photographs that challenged the existing beliefs regarding sexuality. Consequently, Helmut Newton was accused of being regressive and exploitative because of the emerging issues of eroticism of women. Newton’s determination to push the limits and go as far as he could on the issue of sexuality is seen in nearly all his work in fashion photography. Newton’s determination to push limits and go as far as he could on the issue of sexuality is seen in nearly all of his work in fashion photography. For example, his works for American Vogue’s “Story of Ohh”, depicted open, forceful lust since they featured a man, two women, and a dog. Newton’s style and work reflected surrealism in photography through exhibiting explicitly sexualized images of nude and semi-nude women that shocked the viewer and opened the window to an unusual world.

The other most influential fashion photographer in the 1960s is Guy Bourdin who utilized a relatively similar style to Helmut Newton. Similar to Newton, Bourdin was experimental in his style. Guy Bourdin is considered to have crossed the boundaries of fashion photography similar to Helmut Newton since he utilized a sexually aggressive and violent style of photography. However, Bourdin’s style was sensual and dependent on provocation and ability to shock viewers. When creating richly sensual images in his work, Bourdin incorporated surreal, erotic, and sinister elements that challenged the existing traditions and views regarding sexuality. He exhibited violence and graphic sexuality in his images, which reflected surrealism in photography through. For instance, he shot a nude image of an unknown female model who posed as a corpse, an image that was used for a calendar. While Bourdin followed the path set by Newton, he integrated a sadomasochistic touch, provocative, and humorous touch in his images. Unlike Newton who always created his images on location, Guy Bourdin worked in the studio.

In this image, a woman appears to be entering a mouse hole in the floor. She is sexualized, wearing little but long black tights and stilettos. She is faceless, and likened to an animal. The image borders on being abstract, given there are few representative elements. Bourdin focuses on using large blocks of color, and only yellow, red, and black, like a reworking of a Mondrian:

In this image, Bourdin places a woman face down in the wet grass, her auburn hair spilled out in front of her, red paint around her eyes. It is like a crime scene; she is left naked and exposed. The red and green are juxtaposed to create color contrast. Bourdin combines violence and sexuality in provocative and surreal ways in both this and the previous image. Much of his work appeared in Vogue magazine, but he was also an art photographer whose work appeared in museums like MOMA, New York.

Guy Bourdin is considered to have crossed the boundaries of fashion photography similar to Helmut Newton since he utilized a sexually aggressive and even at times violent style of photography. Again drawing parallels with Hitchcoks’s cinematography, what Bourdin set out to do was to take the “girl next door,” a picture of innocence and naivety, typically a blonde, and then establish her in a situation that clearly evokes danger. The juxtaposition of innocence and malice is what sets aside Bourdin’s surrealist photography. For example, Bourdin includes crime imagery into the scene, thereby devising also a story or narrative that the viewer could read into the image. Bourdin also liked to include props and other inanimate objects into his fashion photography, adding a further surrealist edge to his work. The fashion model was sometimes not even placed front and center on the composition, but was instead taking a back seat to the disjointed and absurdist image.?Ultimately, Bourdin’s style was sensual and dependent on provocation and ability to shock viewers. The goal was to attract attention and to stimulate some kind of emotional response, which is one of the keys of success in surrealist art. After all, surrealism taps into the subconscious mind. Each viewer will react differently to what they see in the imagery. When creating richly sensual images in his work, Bourdin incorporated surreal, erotic, and sinister elements that challenged the existing traditions and views regarding sexuality.

Unlike Bourdin and Newton, Henri Cartier-Bresson did not focus on fashion as his primary medium. Instead Cartier Bresson was interested in street photography. Through his photography, style and work he is viewed as a pioneer of straightforward and street photography but yet surreal street photography. Cartier-Bresson emphasized “the decisive moment” in all his images as he never utilized any tools to fine-tune his images. Given his emphasis on “the decisive moment”, Cartier-Bresson is renowned for his capability to be in the right place and at the right time to tell the story. As part of his style, Cartier-Bresson applied geometry to his photographs in a poetic manner since most of his images incorporated various geometric components like curves, circles, vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, squares, and triangles. This is especially evident in the image of the man in “Place de L’Europe,” (see appendix). The man runs, his body and shadow creating interlocking shapes. On the surface of the water are circles, while the rooftops of the buildings create triangles.

In the following image, Cartier-Bresson evokes Magritte with the bowler hat, homage to the Belgian surrealist. A man stands as if startled by the camera, his cape forming a triangle. The man’s head appears exactly at the lines of convergence in linear perspective. Framed by the bare trees of winter, the man seems as if he is stuck in space and time.

He reflected surrealism in photography through creating well-composed images that elevated ordinary, daily events to monumental levels. For example, in Place de l'Europe , he took an image of a man jubilantly hopping over a flooded place in Paris. This image raises daily events to monumental levels because it captures the moment before the person’s heel hits the water.?Cartier-Bresson left a tremendous legacy for future street photographers to follow. For example, Cartier-Bresson did not use a realist approach but a surrealist one, that is more about the oddity of the images than of capturing what is really there. Cartier-Bresson was able to locate geometric shapes in street scenes and architecture, a style that continues to captivate viewers today. Even when the work of Cartier-Bresson was seemingly realist, the imagery nevertheless does contain almost a level of abstraction. Upon this level of abstraction, the viewer is invited to project his or her own thoughts and feelings upon the image. It is important to look beyond the substantive content and appreciate the shapes, forms, and lighting of each image. Even when looking at the “decisive moment,” one is called upon to question what makes that moment special and unique. Cartier-Bresson was able to locate the surreal squarely within the real, without the need for constructed sexuality or violence. Thus, one finds surrealism in ordinary, everyday imagery.