Surrealism

 This photographic series will work to explore the difference between adult dreams, desires, and anxieties and a child's dream and desires through the use of surrealism. I always have dreams that are interesting, for lack of a better word. They're dark and often nightmarish, as are my first three images. These first three images follow the techniques of surrealists more accurately, and the last three images are representative my independent interpretation of surrealism- minus the sexual Freudian aspect. I'm interested in the ability of abstract photographs to capture the likeness of dreams, more specifically the likeness of my dreams and what I think a child's dreams would consist of- either conscious or unconscious. My inspiration to take surreal photographs came from Man Ray's image Observatory Time, Two Lovers. I wasn't particularly interested on using surrealism to project sensuality, but I was interested in combining elements in a surreal way to create a dream-like image similar to his. I chose to contrast the first three images with the second to illustrate the emotional and mental transition people experience as they grow up- the child's dream is fantastical, colorful, and playful, while the adult's dreams are frightening, nightmarish, and full of angst. 

-Katherine Smith 

This image illustrates a desire to hide from your fears. According to
Freud, dreams can reveal repressed thoughts. In this image, the girl is keeping
the thought repressed by literally avoiding eye contact.

This image shows, in a surreal manner, my anxiety. I wanted to
portray how this anxiety makes me feel in an image.

In this image I tried to incorporate a more sexual overtone.
I made my main subject red to represent lust and passion. I decided
to add the David to add a more obvious sexual symbol. By having both
the subject and the David looking the same way I attempted to
create sexual tension.

                       the transition 

This image, aside from just being fun, represents
a child's point of view of the world- adult's are uncreative, uncolored giants. They sky as a blank canvas represents
the openness of a child's mind.




This next image (to the right) is meant to be a caption of a child's dream. The objects in the image are fun and playful, compared to the David or a needle which implies sexuality and anxiety, these objects imply youth and are objects that entice children.


This final image represents a child's more conscious dream- a classic girly car, a cute little house, and a bright and shiny day. The surreal element of this photo, as well as the previous two, is in fact surreal, but it goes against surrealist views because the images are aesthetically pleasing. But this is my interpretation of dreams and surrealism.