everyday

Exploring ways of working with surrealism in photography using photomontage and psychodynamic theory.

Introduction

I will with this essay attempt to describe and analyse my work, the result of exploring the genre of surrealism to find new ways of working with photography and to get a greater understanding of the movements impact on contemporary art. This was made by studying the features in some pieces of surrealist art, contemporary art’s relation to it, and reading about surrealist ideas. I will start with a short introduction about surrealism and continue to describe and analyse my own strategies dealing with the surrealist concept, with focus on its relations to psychoanalysis and the unconscious. This work I carried out resulted in three photomontages, made by putting myself in the position as the object for an association test, conducted by my mother who is a psychologist, over the Internet phone Skype.

Surrealism and it’s attachment to the unconscious
The ideas of surrealism seem to be to put aside any restrains, previous conceptions, taboos or morality whether it will be political, social or religious. The writers Andre´ Breton, Paul Eluard and Pierre Reverdy, led the surrealists by setting out to bring systems into anarchy. (Ruhrberg, Schneckenburger, Fricke, Honnef, 2005:137). The Surrealist Manifesto was written by Breton and was published the first time in 1924 (Wikipedia, 2007-03-01). Surrealism proclaims the unconscious of the mind to be as important as the conscious: any dream, hallucination or intoxication experienced is considered to be as ‘real’ as anything else which explains its attachment to the theories of psychoanalysis, founded by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.

Surrealism and photography
So what about photography and surrealism? Krauss (1986: 128) wrote in her text about photography and surrealism: ‘Technically, and semiologically speaking, drawing and paintings are icons, while photographs are indexes’. This, she describes, is related to the actual technical process of a photograph, it is a print of light read by the apparatus and might therefore be seen as an imprint of the real in comparison with for example painting or sculpture. Krauss mentions doubling and spacing as ways of manipulating photographs according to surrealist ideas which in extension makes a statement of the very reality as coded or written. Photography might be seen with a troubled relationship to the surreal because of its indexical nature but what I think Krauss means might be that it is because of this that photography has great potential in making the familiar unfamiliar.

Developing ideas
One well-known surrealist artist whose paintings have fascinated me for a long time is Salvador Dali. His way of painting dreamlike scenarios including symbolism and mythology inspired me when thinking of what to do for this project. Also, when visiting the Media Burn exhibition at the Tate Modern my interest immediately fell on the work of Martha Rosler, who is a contemporary artist, that in this exhibition displays photomontages made from photographs taken from a magazine. Rosler’s work implicates surrealism to me by the technique she uses, assembling images that do not originally belong together to create new meaning. The technique of photomontage seemed to be an interesting way of working with surrealism in photography.
When thinking about what I wanted to do for this project I immediately felt like doing something related to the unconscious. Photographing is quite a conscious act, taking a photograph is conscious, one points the camera, adjust and shoot in the attempt to capture something specific. With this in mind I felt like the problem to solve was how to work with photography and the unconscious, to find a strategy. I wanted to let go of my frames and boundaries, in an attempt to “overrule” my own mind. What came to my mind was an association test I did for my mother about twelve years ago, being part of a control group in a case study she did when she was studying to become a psychologist. The test called SAT- 9 (Symbolic Apperception Test 9 item) can be used to test people’s ability of symbolizing, and in extension, to see if they have the ability to connect words with feelings. Doing the test back then included drawing the items (the 9 words given to me) without using an eraser and while drawing put it all together into a story on one sheet of paper. This was not to take longer than one hour. The test seemed to be a good thing to use to be able to lure out something from the unconscious while using photography. I got in touch with my mother about it and after discussing different aspects of how to carry it out, we agreed on a way of doing it.

Performing the test
The test, SAT 9 is used in psychodynamic theory. It is related to psychoanalysis and is focusing on the psyche, especially at the unconscious level. The test originally includes drawing but what I wanted to do was to use the photographs and other images I already have got on my computer. So the idea we agreed on was that I would perform the association test, by putting together a photomontage using Photoshop, instead of drawing. Since making a photomontage probably would take longer than making a drawing, me and my mother agreed on me having one hour to make a rough draft that included choosing the components and placing them in relation to each other (in a thought story). This we agreed would limit the time of thinking of what to put onto the blank page, to get as much of the association –thinking as possible and then after that hour still have the time to make it fit together as a montage. When the hour was up I did not change the components in the montage. With every montage I wrote a small story that explained what was happening in the montage (using the different items as part of that story). This is a part of the test that the psychologist uses to assess the interaction between the items and the thought story and all of this is considered in the final analysis that becomes a hypothesis that will be used in further therapy sessions.

Photomontage 1
The first photomontage was made using the original nine items of the test. My mother and me connected over the Internet phone Skype, she gave me the nine items and I made a draft during one hour. I refined it a bit and send it to her with the story to explain how I used the items. These where the items:

A fall (as in something falling),
A sword
A shelter
A consuming monster
A cycle (something continuous)
Water
A personality
An animal
A fire

Photomontage 2
The problem at this point was that the items already had been used and I wanted to get new associations, using the same items to make one more montage seemed not to fit my purpose with the test of bringing forward the something of the unconscious.
Therefore I asked my boyfriend to come up with nine other words that I could use as items in the second test -round. These where the words:

Fear
Peacefulness
A forest
A mountain
Pride
Disease
Something unknown
Chaos
Invasion

Photomontage 3
I had to come up with a new strategy of changing the items with the third montage. I decided to use association in this part of the process as well. I had a look at the original items and thought it would be interesting to go for their opposites. Some of the words that came up might seem a bit far-fetched but they were my spontaneous opposite-association result. Here are the opposite words:

Something that can go up
A shield
No shelter (opposite
A starving hero
Something linear
Dryness
Something impersonal
Something mechanical
Coldness

The photomontages have been analysed by my mother, the first according to the SAT -9 test procedure and the other two in a slightly different way. When altering the items we moved away from the original test concept in the analysis part, but the anxiety and defence mechanisms theme (that are accounted for in the original analysing procedure) can still be found and the second two montages were analysed from that .

Conclusion
I thought this was a very interesting way of working with my photographs and to get inspiration to do something that I would never have come up with otherwise, to put use those familiar photographs as elements in scenarios up till then unfamiliar to me. There was a kind of development in the process that I did not think would turn out as it did. The first montage is very flat and makes use of the elements in a not all together well fitting scenario. I think I was affected by the outcome of that (from my disappointment over the result, aesthetically I don’t like it) why I tried to blend the elements together in a better way in the second and third montages. Still the work attempts to bring to light parts of my own unconscious using what is already there, my photographs, which also in a way limited my interpretations of the items by what I could make out of my already existing photographs. I made use of a strategy, carried out the task I had set up for with a result that I would not have obtained by just deciding to do a photomontage. I guess it did evoke some things from my unconscious, it was quite draining to do the project, but I would like to do it again. I think it made use of some of the surrealist features, both in the technique used and the result. The first montage is more obviously a montage than the other two why I would like to suggest there is a need for the process of getting used to the way of working. It was exiting though to see these photomontages evolve from the images I have on my computer in collaboration with some parts of my unconscious mind.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Krauss, R ‘Photography in the Service of Surrealism’ from the book L’Amour Fou: Photography and Surrealism (1986) Arts Council, London.

Ruhrberg, Schneckenburger, Fricke, Honnef (2005) ‘Art of the 20th Century, volume 1’, Taschen, Los Angeles.

Wilhelmsson, K and Rosber, E (1995) ‘Förekommer alexithymi hos patienter med diagnosen fibromyalgi’.

Highmore, B (2002) Surrealism – The marvellous in the everyday from the book ‘Everyday life and cultural theory’. London, Routhledge.

INTERNET
www.tate.org.uk
www://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism (2007-03-01)
www://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycodynamic_theory (2007-03-03)

EXHIBITIONS
Tate Modern, ‘Poetry and Dream’ (2007-02-05).
Tate Modern, ‘Media Burn’ (2007-02-05).

OTHER SOURCES
My mother Ewa Rosberg.

Photomontage 1 The right side of the image is representing anxiety and might be seen as something that hero is feeling inside. The fact that water is included in what is evoking anxiety might be interpreted as if something fundamentally important is threatened which makes the image of anxiety stronger. Hero is also experiencing herself falling from a high height, which is not an unusual thing to dream about during periods of development but also when experiencing insecurity. The monster is not that frighteningly represented and does not seem to make up a potential threat. The cycle represents something continually coming back, which is giving comfort and security and an opportunity to deal with what is creating the anxiety. The cycle, in form of London Eye, represents a rather unsafe feeling, hero is high up in the air and risking falling down, once again the theme of falling. The fire is representing the possibility of shelter and warmth but is in the image far away and not available to hero. The fluffy animal can be interpreted as the availability to security in the image, but since the animal can’t see anything it can be fully trusted. It is also the animal and not hero who possesses the sword, which might represent that hero, is depending on others for protection.

The left part of the image might be seen as representing the hope to solve the anxiety of the situation. In size it is a bit smaller than the part representing the anxiety to the right. This can be interpreted as there are possibilities to deal with the situation without being overwhelmed by the threat, despite the limited amount of solving tools. The hope to solve the situation is in another person that offers a possibility to fly away and escape the threat. Hypothesis: The photo contains all of the 9 items and the interaction between them can be found in the story. The image does not show any signs of alexyhemia, but is rather neurotically put together.

Photomontage 2
Dense image! Containing a lot of anxiety-awakening components (the threatening troll behind the mountain, the threatening disease and the unknown invasion). The town is although giving the impression of community as a shelter from the threats or the anxiety (the houses stand close together in a circle). One thing that represents shelter, or refuge is the cabin. Here mythical components in the form of animals and the woods can be found. Hypothesis: A person who is experiences herself as being threatened by a lot of different things but that also has got some the ability to deal with the anxiety awoke; this person probably has a rich emotional life.

Photomontage 3:

This is an image that is difficult to interpret from SAT 9. It expresses a deserted, cold and lifeless environment that can be interpreted as a projection of hero’s inner. There is no fall and no monster that can trigger anxiety, instead the whole image; the situation in itself is representing angst. There are no tools to deal with the anxiety (no sword, no shelter). Water that is life-giving, is present in the form of snow, it is frozen. The fire to get warmth from, and that also offers shelter, is missing. The person has turned into herself to shut the cold, rejecting environment out with her helmet. This is essential to survive. Hero is threatened and on her way to be exterminated. The road is endless to walk. In the image there are still two components that ease the situation a bit. The sky can be interpreted to have the feature of a cycle where day and night can be experienced and this does create a structure for hero despite the hostile environment. The only bit of hopefulness that can be found is the swan that can represent the dream of the beautiful and warm. The swan is also representing the hope for change. It can fly away.

Hypothesis: A depressed person that does not see much hope in life and saves her energy to survive.