Today’s Surrealist Landscape Photography, Are They Really ‘Surreal’?

Introduction

In 1917, the word ‘Surrealism’ is considered first used by Guillaume Apollinaire in his opera. After that, Andre Breton used this term to claim that he intends to break with literary sedimentation that demonstrates a presence to the public while concealing that presents itself.[1] Nowadays, when we study Surrealist photography, it was routinely being put in a contemporary context. However, with the evolution of cameras, technologies, post-editing techniques, it becomes a mass media. Moreover, many new media platforms emerged, such as Instagram. Which have impacted our ‘ways of seeing’[2] significantly, and there are a large number of a kind of new Surrealist photographs emerging. The expressive methods and forms of Surrealist photography have changed. There is an asymmetry between today and previous surrealist photography. However, they have not attracted enough attention from scholars. Hence, it is critical to understand what the difference between surrealist photography is between now and then. What does this influence the practice of photography? What does this add to the concept of Surrealist photography and today’s Surrealist landscape photography truly surreal?

The paper analyses some of the works of two current surrealist landscape photographers, Reuben Wu and Erik Johansson, and compares them with several representative contemporary surrealist photographs and paintings, examining their similarities and differences, focusing on considering the impact of digitisation on the representation of the surreal. This essay discusses how collage and photomontage can achieve surreal as a parallel study to discuss how today’s digital post-production can achieve surreal, for example, through Adobe Photoshop. Moreover, this essay examines theories of surrealist automatism and the unconscious and some contemporary works, discussing why works with intent can also be called surreal. In addition, this essay also recognises the difference between the equipment they are using, and ideas being filmed and carried today and analysed their impact on the surrealist presentation of the work.

With the analysis, this essay argues that today’s post-production is essentially the same as the previous photomontage technique, and that one of the keys to surrealism is to give the viewer a dreamlike experience that transcends reality. Furthermore, it concludes that surrealism’s primary purpose is for artists to illustrate the most fundamental and most resounding idea in their minds. Finally, due to the asymmetry of many vital factors, it is possible to argue that today’s surrealism should be the surrealist ‘style’ as a kind of modern visual arts. The analysis is based on the art history studies of surrealism from other scholars; Photography critics, such as Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag and John Burger; Talks of artists, interviews with artists; And my own experience as a photographer. For another thing, the using the term of ‘contemporary surrealist photography’ in this paper refers to those works around the 1920s to 1940s which influenced by the movement of surrealism; And using words indicating the present such as ‘today’ and ‘nowadays’ refers to the works affected by digital media and technology at the moment.

The Digital Condition

Under contemporary contexts, Surrealists seemed to be obsessed with the natural existence of the landscape. As automatism has always been one of the most significant principles of surrealism. Surrealism was defined by Breton in First Surrealist Manifesto as ‘pure psychic automatism’, without any control of rational, ignoring moral and aesthetic concerns, by which people can express the ‘true function of thought’.[3] According to Krauss, Breton emphasises the absolute value of vision in ‘Surrealism and painting’, arguing that vision is pure, unconscious, and not controlled by reason, and that the immediacy and transparency of its presentation determine its primacy.[4] ‘Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak’.[5] From these, the prospects and place of photography in contemporary surrealism can be anticipated. The objective nature of photography, the visual nature of the work coincided with how the Surrealists wanted to express their ideas. Photography is so convenient for presenting surrealism that most of the contemporary Surrealist artworks or Surrealist objects we see today are documented in photographs. As a naturally occurring substance, the landscape, pure and objective and beyond human thought, has undoubtedly become the prey of many Surrealist photographers. Just as Susan Sontag wrote that unexpected events, uninvited scenes, and compliments disorderly scenes are always surrealism pursue, and there is nothing more surreal than an object that is effortlessly self-generated.[6] Moreover, Fernando Magallanes writes that:

‘Landscape was never the focus of surrealist theory. Yet, it is clear that landscape was indirectly addressed as a metaphorical, poetic, and inspirational vehicle for surrealist ends Surrealism’s openness to a variety of media expression incited painters to expand into collage, frottage, and decalcomania and opened the door for a sympathetic relationship with the built and natural landscape. As landscape designers curiously glance at surrealism a closely examined gaze at landscape examples, the painters, and the writers who initiated the surrealist movement is needed.’[7]

Krauss summarises the range of contemporary forms of surrealist photography, which involve the documentation of existing objects; photomontage using techniques such as multiple exposures and collage; the use of specular reflections; and camera-less photography.[8] Today, if we search for Surrealist photography on a search engine, most of the results that come up are different in many ways from contemporary Surrealist photography, whether in terms of colour, composition, or topic. There are even tutorials that teach how to make Surrealist photographs that are utterly contrary to contemporary concepts. Today’s photography is ubiquitous, and it is within reach for people, even in excess. The tenets of contemporary surrealism now seem to have been completely lost, and the topics they focus on and the themes they express are different. However, this is not saying that nowadays Surrealist photo works are not good visual art works. For instance, Reuben Wu, who claims to be a visual artist and music producer, produced a series of Surrealist landscape photo works. According to Wu, the project ‘Lux Noctis’ is inspired by ideas of interstellar exploration, light-dark paintings, and science fiction.[9] Which is a series of extraordinary landscape photographs taken at night, using drones for lighting and light painting. Wu states that for creating these unique images, as most of the locations were only accessible to him on foot, he had to simplify his filming equipment, which includes a powerful light source, a drone, and a medium format camera.[10] As in Fig. 1, firstly, a halo draws the viewer’s attention, hovering above the mountain that is the subject of the image. The light from the drone not only leaves a circular trajectory, but also illuminates the peak, the details of the mountain and its body in the centre of the composition, outlining the layers of colour of the mountain and separating it from the sky in the background. This seems to be a particularly tricky approach of lighting, as people know that it is challenging to illuminate objects on the ground at night in the wilderness with only the light from the moon and stars. Some astronomy photographers would choose to stand in the frame and use a strong spotlight which creates a column of light in the frame due to the Tyndall effect. Wu’s use of a drone and a strong light source not only properly illuminates the subject, highlighting the most significant parts of the image, but also leaves a very noticeable mark. He managed to control the lights in a natural environment like in a studio. Moreover, most of the works in this project require post-processing. Because it takes a certain amount of time to use drones to carry LED lights in the night sky to form patterns and illuminate specific parts,[11] such as the Fig. 2, it is necessary to mix the results of these multiple exposures.

At the same time, the project is also his approach to the difficulties that the current generation of landscape photographers are facing that there are not many landscapes left to photograph. In an interview, Wu explained his reasons for using LED lights to illuminate the vast scene rather than natural light, stating that he wanted to indicate perspectives that are not commonly seen, and that people have seen too many familiar images of the world lit by the sun.[12] With the use of the LED lights, Wu has created a unique connection with the landscape. As he said, it gives him ‘a sense of discovery and a sense of exploration’.[13] Furthermore, due to the convenience of progressive technology and a deeper understanding of the planet and humanity itself, environmental issue is the topic that current generation landscape photographers always focus on. Such as the Fig. 3, a typical Wu’s ‘halo’ floating above the glacier, which was photographed in Peru and it is disappearing at an alarming rate due to climate change. Wu states that his idea is to shoot these landscapes as documents rather than keep reminding people of this situation.[14]

For now, from the analysis of the shooting process, post-editing process and the artist’s ideas, it seems that nowadays ‘surrealism’ concepts are entirely irrelevant with the contemporary surrealism concepts. Its filming process and post-production techniques involve so much digitisation that we cannot associate it in any way with contemporary Surrealist automation, and digital cameras seem to be different in essence from film cameras. More importantly, the artist is shotting with intent, considered moral and the beauty, unlike contemporary Surrealists who just based on their intuition, which is not in keeping with the Surrealist requirement of the unconscious, as Breton states that expressing ideas should be in the ‘absence of any control exerted by reason, outside all moral and aesthetic considerations’.[15] However, there are still commonalities between these works and contemporary Surrealist photographs. The dreamlike atmosphere created by these works is similar to that of contemporary Surrealist photography. Just as Breton’s dissatisfaction with that people have ‘proscribed every way of seeking the truth which does not conform to convention’,[16] surrealism not only inspired artists to unleash the power of the subconscious of fantasy states,[17] but also inspires emancipation and rebellion against tradition. Which as with Wu’s innovative use of drone photography, and the creation of a new style of landscape photography, it is, to a certain extent, the same as contemporary experiments in Surrealist camera-less photography. For another thing, nowadays post-editing process is also similar to contemporary photographic montage, which is also a controversial technique in contemporary Surrealist photography.

The photomontage is often regarded as one of the most significant features of contemporary Surrealist photography. Initially, since 1915, when photomontage was used by Dadaist protesters in the First World War to express political dissent, and later, the Surrealists embraced to reflect the workings of the subconscious of the human’s mind by freely combining various different images,[18] and was given a chance to create an alternative version of reality.[19] However, such a technique that seems to help artists better express their ideas is sometimes argued as not surreal enough because it is deliberate. Which raises the question that is it more important for an artist the content of the idea he/she wants to express or the form of his/her expression? It seems to be a dualism question, but we can be sure that visualising some thoughts that come from the subconscious or intuitive requires certain stages. The complete abandonment of re-working and ‘intentionality’ seems unfair for photography, whereas there seems to be no such requirement for painting. From this point of view, the photomontage technique of re-editing a photographed photograph is similar to the re-use of an existing object, a kind of pictorial extension. Besides, the special significance of photography in relation to surrealism lies in its connection with reality —— based on it and beyond it. As Krauss states that:

‘Surreality is, we could say, nature convulsed into a kind of writing. The special access that photography has to this experience is its privileged connection to the real. The manipulations then available to photography - what we have been calling doubling and spacing - appear to document these convulsions. The photographs are not interpretations of reality, decoding it, as in Heartfield’s photomontages. They are presentations of that very reality as configured, or coded, or written. The experience of nature as sign, or nature as representation, comes "naturally" then to photograph.’[20]

Thus far, it is challenging enough to convey real ideas between people, and photography, as a medium for reproducing reality, makes it almost impossible to reveal the artist’s subconscious and real ideas simply by portraying reality. Moreover, Post-processing is sometimes crucial to photographic work, as Cartier-Bresson writes that:

‘During the process of enlarging, it is essential to re-create the values and mood of the time the picture was taken; or even to modify the print so as to bring it into line with the intentions of the photographer at the moment he shot it. It is necessary also to re-establish the balance which the eye is continually establishing between light and shadow. And it is for these reasons that the final act of creating in photography takes place in the darkroom.’[21]

Hence, there is credible evidence to suggest that it is no longer necessary that the use of photomontage conforms to the requirements of surrealism but that the idea is conveyed. Therefore, some contemporary Surrealist theoretical rules and regulations should not be a stumbling block to the expression of Surrealist ideas. It is contrary to its assertions, i.e., the emancipation of thought and the rebellion against the fetters of regulations. Thus, the usage of post-editing techniques such as Adobe Photoshop just like the dark room, and the digital usage should not be the reason of they are not Surrealist photographs.

Meanwhile, the Surrealists’ obsession with nature can be found in nowadays Surrealist landscape photo works. In addition to Reuben Wu’s pre-staged posed shots, post-processing of existing nature seems to be the norm in Surrealist photography. Erik Johansson, for instance, also contributed a lot to nowadays Surrealist art works. The Fishy Island (Fig. 4) is one of his surreal photo works. This image is a composite of many photographs taken in different locations (Fig. 5). Johansson achieved to create an illusion, in which audiences could feel a sense of realistic. In retrospect, one of the attractions of the natural landscape for the Surrealists was that it was naturally real, and his way of expression is the same as contemporary Surrealist painting to a significant extent. Firstly, his method is like painting but using the camera as a paintbrush. Johansson states that for his creation, the process starts after pressing the trigger.[22] (It is interesting that Cartier-Bresson once said something similar that the photography is one of his ‘sketchpads’.)[23] However, rather than settling for straightforward shots of already existing landscapes, he uses his imagination to carve out fairy-tale, dreamlike, and inspirational works that aid modern technology. This presentation of elusive images, like contemporary Surrealist landscape photography, confounds conventional assumptions about the type of landscape.[24] Secondly, through the illusion of real effects created by modern technology, Johansson’s works seem to be no different from contemporary photomontage works. For instance, the Fig. 6. It seems that there almost has no difference between putting the buildings on balance and putting the buildings on ta fish. In these photographs, they have tried to achieve a sense of authenticity, that this is a real scene. In this way, the link between Surrealist photography and painting seems to be very strong, as this sense of being on the edge of the reality and the illusion can be found in many contemporary Surrealist arts. Such as the Max Ernst’s Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale (Fig. 7), which many have called a ‘door to another world’, the combination of collage and painting brings the viewer into a world that is both real and unreal, especially the red wooden door that breaks through the edge of the frame on the left, entering the viewer’s real world. As the paper mentioned before, the importance of a sense of realistic to Surrealistic. Hence, up to this point, in terms of presentation, production methods and the feeling it gives to the audiences, nowadays Surrealist landscape photography is surreal.

The Paradox of Unconscious

After this, however, we have to come back to the issue of the automation of surreal photography in the present era because there are so many differences in various aspects. Automatism suggests that individuals can perform complex activities unconsciously.[25] In the First Surrealist Manifesto, Breton localised the mental automatism’s invention in the experience of hypnotic images, which is the visual experience of being half awake and half asleep.[26] And William Rubin defines ‘intrinsic definition of Surrealist pain’ that, ‘there are two poles of surrealist endeavor-the automatist/abstract and the academic/illusionist-the two poles corresponding to “the Freudian twin props of Surrealist theory, namely automatism (or free association) and dreams.”’[27] So, creating art according to the guidance of the subconscious is one of the most significant characters of contemporary surrealist photography. However, there are so many alterations in today’s surrealist production. Johansson said that ‘it is easier to actually create a place than to find a place, because then you do not need to compromise with the ideas in your head’.[28] His surreal photo works are shooting with plans, which makes it seem quite different, even wrong, as surrealism should leave creation to the subconscious. Furthermore, Wu also said that he would do a lot of research about the location he is going to shoot, such as the position of the moon and sun, the texture and the form of the landscape.[29] Moreover, he also said that ‘it was important for it to look real and analogue rather than digital’[30] while he introducing Aeroglyphs (Fig. 8). the issue, as mentioned before, is that these works are so good looking, and the shot is so well planned. When does one stop being unconscious when creating a surrealist work? Is it not surrealism when there is an intention?

To begin with, I am looking at surrealist photography as painting because they are similar in various aspects, as the opening quote mentioned that they are parallel.[31] Many of the great surrealist paintings have elements such as the colour palette and the construction and composition of the scene that have been carefully prepared. For instance, in Dali’s The Persistence of Memory (Fig. 9), the shape of the clock, the position of the clock, the colour of the clock and the mountains in the background are all wisely planned. Back in photography, for example, Man Ray’s Le Violin D’Ingres (Fig. 10), the objectification of women implied therein and the sexual innuendo, as Linda Steer said, ‘the image is beautiful to look at but also disturbing’.[32] It gives audiences a sensation of sliding between the real world and the dream world, which is obviously well conceived.[33] So, is the unconscious really is without any thought? Is automation truly entirely without any control? The answer seems to be negative.

In Addition to this. The street photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson are often embodying a surrealist aesthetic and philosophy His theory of the ‘Decisive Moment’ also coincides with the surrealist focus on the accidental and random occurrences. He writes that ‘I owe an allegiance to Surrealism, because it taught me to let the photographic lens look into the rubble of the unconscious and of chance’,[34] and photography is ‘a spontaneous impulse’.[35] For him, pressing the shutter at the perfect time, place, and angle was intuitive, as he writes that ‘you wait and wait, and then finally you press the button —— and you depart with the feeling (though you don’t know why) that you’ve really got something’.[36] However, was it conscious or unconscious at the moment he pressed the trigger? He constantly refers to the strict form and organisation of the composition and his quest for the ‘golden ratio’, which is clear that each shot was considered and not just aimlessly snapped away as if with eyes closed but it just happens rapidly. In other words, it seems that once the photographer decides to take this very sense in the very moment, is not unconscious. Then, what is unconscious? Does the subconscious really exist? A similar paradox happens in Surrealists’ interests with unexpectedness and randomness. What is random? A cloud? The shape of a cloud is not fixed and is random, and no two clouds are the same. However, the shape of a cloud is determined by its height, the temperature and humidity density of the air. If we think it this way, it is always determined. As well as the automatism, once the Surrealist decided to write down or paint down his idea, it is under his minds control. But this kind of discussion is endless, and once confirms the existence of randomness, it is contrary to the deterministic.

Therefore, there is reasonable evidence to indicate that surreal automatism and unconsciousness lie in the source of the artist’s ideas rather than in the process of the display. As Susan Sontag criticises that:

‘The error of the Surrealist militants was to imagine the surreal to be something universal, that is, a matter of psychology, whereas it turns to be what is most local, ethnic, class - bound, dated […] Believing that the images they sought came from the unconscious, whose contents they assumed as loyal Freudians to be timeless as well as universal, the Surrealists misunderstood what was most brutally moving, irrational, unassimilable, mysterious - time itself.’[37]

This suggests that the value of Surrealist artworks lies in the stories behind them, the people and groups they represent, the feelings they bring to the viewer and the historical and anthropological values behind them, as well as the liberation of the human mind and imagination. As Johansson said that ‘the only thing that limits us is our imagination’.[38] Surrealism is influenced by Sigmund Freud, demanding that the expression of ideas from the subconscious and dreams is precise because those are the most sincere and real. Walter Benjamin writes that we have realised the ‘optical unconscious’ for the first time through photography, just as psychoanalysis makes us understand the ‘instinctual unconscious’.[39] And planning the shooting in advance is to illustrate the surreal picture better. As Steer writes that ‘many scholars have addressed how deliberate surrealist photographs such as this either actively represent dreams or suggest a dreamlike state’.[40] So ultimately, surrealism should be concerned with conveying the true subconscious thoughts of a person rather than emphasising the use of a particular technique. Thus, the unconscious of automatism of surrealism should be the moment of the idea emerging or the moment of the artist was inspired, not the process of visualise the idea.

Progressive Technology and Thought

On the other hand, with the exception of those elements that cannot influence them to be ‘truly surreal’, there are some other elements that are indeed inconsistent. Surrealist photographers nowadays are often working with digital cameras, comparing to the film camera, which is one of the critical forms of contemporary surrealist photography concluded by Krauss,[41] they seem to be essentially different. For film cameras, the process is a chemical reaction, similar to that of the early artists who painted in the darkroom using pinhole imaging, even the word camera originally meant darkroom. Yet, digital cameras leave this romantic, soulful process to the optical sensors and processors, turning the subject into a cold, serious pile of data. While filtering out the warmth and realism of the features of the film camera, such as grainy spots, smudges, light leaks and even mistakes in the development process, it also seems to filter out the part of random, unconscious, and irrational that Surrealism is focused on and desires. For another thing, the political context and intentions underlying surreal photography and the ideas contained therein today are significantly altered from those of contemporary times. For instance, In the contemporary context, photomontage was often used as a political weapon, like the Dada artist John Heartfield used his photomontages to express his resistance to Hitler’s regime.[42] However, this is not saying that photography must be all about politics or absolutely avoiding politics, such as gender issues have also been a constant concern. In addition, Steer also states that ‘Surrealism’s unconscious was unconscious’, because it is in ‘a gesture that is unaware of itself’, suggesting that some of the surrealist photographs were unaware that they had a certain political impact.[43] Photography, whether as an art form or a media, there are different roles to play in different eras. It is reasonable to assume that some outdated topics are no longer of interest to the current generation of photographers. Therefore, today’s surrealist landscape photographers are focusing on environmental issues or engaging in creating surreal visual art effects.

Conclusion

This essay does not undertake much research or discussion of contemporary surrealist landscape photography, as there seems to be enough research already. Still, it selects some typical contemporary surrealist artworks as a parallel study to compare with current works. In addition, the analyse has not involved too many current Surrealist landscape photographers, as it must be considered that these two are highly representative. The analysis of the present works in the thesis is largely based on the artists’ speeches, such as interviews with them and their lectures, as there is not a lot of academic research on these works, so I also call for sufficient attention and research to be given to the present works as they are mainstream and popular in the current context. Digitalisation has reduced the cost of filming and the variety of ways in which images can be distributed, and it is worth looking at how his infinitely reproducible nature has affected surrealism and other changes. Due to the space limitation, this essay could not cover all the aspects there need focused on because they are vast.

To summarise, this essay has analysed two of the surrealist photographers of the current generation, and also compared and analysed with some contemporary surrealist arts, and we found that despite nowadays surrealist landscape photography’s features such as involves a large number of digital processes, they are still conforming to the concept of photomontage and collage. For which we argued that although those are deliberate, several steps and refinement are necessary to visualise the artist’s ideas, and these stages are essentially the same as in contemporary Surrealist painting. Furthermore, we discuss how these intentional works represent the surreal, arguing that the key to the idea of surrealist automatism is to express the idea from the subconscious, that is, the real thought, that choice made on instinct alone, like Cartier-Bresson treats each of his shoots. Moreover, as for pre-setting scenes, as Linda Steer admits, there are photographs that are intentionally produced by surrealist artists, and ‘intentional’ surrealist photographs are a seasonal way of representing or suggesting a dream world.[44]

On the other hand, digital photography can indeed capture the marvellous aesthetics of surrealism. Yet it seems missing a part of irrationality, and the ideas conveyed by the work have changed. As a result of changes in time and technological advances, people’s opinions, thoughts, and life are now less bounded than in the past and are more concerned with the environment and the planet we live on. And photography has evolved significantly, including the way photographs are produced, distributed, and consumed. Surrealism has taken on a new dimension and a new definition in these times —— a style of fine art, a form of expression. Moreover, the subject matter and the content of expression have also changed considerably, for instance, from a call for the liberation of the mind to a concern for the environment. Hence, this easy would argue that today’s surrealist landscape photography is not so much surrealist as it is surrealistic in style as a kind of modern visual art.

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*Cover Photo: My Brain Images, 2021,MRI Result, Mingxuan Hao.

[1] W. Benjamin, Surrealism: The Last Snapshot of the European Intelligentsia, trans. by E., Jephcott (Web edn, 1929), https://monoskop.org/File:Benjamin_Walter_1929_1978_Surrealism_The_Last_Snapshot_of_the_European_Intelligentsia.pdf [accessed 9 May 2021].

[2] J. Burger, Ways of Seeing (UK: Penguin, 1972).

[3] A. Breton, First Surrealist Manifesto (1924).

[4] R. Krauss, ‘The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism’, October, Vol. 19, 1981, pp. 9-10.

[5] Burger, Ways of seeing, p. 1.

[6] S. Sontag, On Photography (UK: Penguin Modern Classics), p. 52.

[7] F. Magallanes, ‘Landscape Surrealism’, in Surrealism and Architecture, ed. by T. Mical (Routledge, 2005), p. 221.

[8] Krauss, ‘The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism’, pp. 17-18

[9] R. Wu, ‘Reuben Wu / projects / Lux Noctis’, https://reubenwu.com/projects/22/lux-noctis [accessed 17 April 2021].

[10] Lux Noctis, by Reuben Wu, (YouTube, 14 May 2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMbdMdI-To8 [accessed 17 April 2021].

[11] Lux Noctis, by Reuben Wu.

[12] S. Polger, ‘Surreal Desert Landscapes Painted on a Canvas Made of Sky’, National Geographic (2016), https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/lighting-the-night-sky [accessed 17 April 2021].

[13] J. Berube, ‘Not Your Typical Drone Photography: Light Painting Landscapes with Reuben Wu’, Phlearn Magazine (2018), https://phlearn.com/magazine/not-your-typical-drone-photography-light-painting-landscapes-with-reuben-wu/ [accessed 17 April 2021].

[14] Berube, ‘Not Your Typical Drone Photography: Light Painting Landscapes with Reuben Wu’.

[15] Breton, First Surrealist Manifesto.

[16] Breton, First Surrealist Manifesto.

[17] V&A, ‘Surrealist Photography’, (Victoria and Albert Museum, n.d.), https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/Surrealist-photography [accessed 17 April 2021].

[18] Tate, ‘Photomontage’, (Tate, n.d.), https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/photomontage [accessed 17 April 2021].

[19] National Galleries Scotland, ‘Photomontage’, (National Galleries Scotland, n.d.), https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/photomontage [accessed 17 April 2021].

[20] Krauss, ‘The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism’, p. 29.

[21] H. Cartier-Bresson, ‘Technique’, in The Decisive Moment (Web edn, 1952), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54c6a9dde4b0908825a17018/t/5d6699c500e94f00014f3655/1567005194085/cartierbresson_the-decisive-moment.pdf [accessed 10 May 2021].

[22] Erik Johansson: Impossible photography, by Erik Johansson (TED, November 2011), https://www.ted.com/talks/erik_johansson_impossible_photography#t-112312 [accessed 10 May 2021].

[23] Cartier-Bresson, The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers, p. 19.

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[25] R. J. McCaldon, ‘Automatism’, Can Med Assoc J, Vol. 91, No. 17, 1964, p. 914. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1927961/ [accessed 10 May 2021].

[26] Krauss, ‘The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism’, p10.

[27] Krauss, ‘The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism’, p7.

[28] Erik Johansson: Impossible photography, by Erik Johansson.

[29] Berube, ‘Not Your Typical Drone Photography: Light Painting Landscapes with Reuben Wu’.

[30] Berube, ‘Not Your Typical Drone Photography: Light Painting Landscapes with Reuben Wu’.

[31] Cartier-Bresson, ‘Photography and Drawing: A Parallel’, p. 45.

[32] L. Steer, Appropriated Photography in French Surrealist Periodicals, 1924-1939 (Routledge, 1997), p. 1.

[33] Steer, Appropriated Photography in French Surrealist Periodicals, 1924-1939, p. 1.

[34] Cartier-Bresson, ‘Photography and Drawing: A Parallel’, in The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers, p. 45.

[35] Cartier-Bresson, ‘André Breton: Sun King’, in The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers, p. 98.

[36] Cartier-Bresson, ‘Composition,’ in The Decisive Moment.

[37] Sontag, On Photography, pp. 53-54.

[38] Erik Johansson: Impossible photography, by Erik Johansson.

[39] W. Benjamin, ‘A Short History of Photography’, trans. by S., Mitchell, Screen (London), Vol. 13, No. 1, 1972, p. 7.

[40] Steer, Appropriated Photography in French Surrealist Periodicals, 1924-1939, p. 2.

[41] Krauss, ‘The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism’, pp. 17-18

[42] D. Arslan, ‘John Heartfield’s Photomontages as a Political Tool’, European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2018, p. 75.

[43] Steer, Appropriated Photography in French Surrealist Periodicals, 1924-1939, p. 6.

[44] Steer, Appropriated Photography in French Surrealist Periodicals, 1924-1939, p. 2.