Surrealist Photography

Brassai's 'Sculpture involuntaire' 1933

Surrealism was a movement based in Paris in the mid 1920's.The unconscious mind was what the surrealists wanted to gain access to. These involved a persons desires, ideas, wishes and their thoughts that were socially 'unacceptable'.

This theory of 'the unconscious' relates to Freud's overall understanding of how the unaware part of us affects the things we are aware of. 'The methods he proposed' to unlock these chain of thoughts were what other surrealists used in their work. From this it shows how from surrealism art and language come together. The chances to freeze the process of the rational mind are what surrealist's were able to do through photography.

Brassai's photographs of involuntary sculptures are objects that get used everyday and his thoughts were that these particular objects show a trace of the person it belonged too. The involuntary aspect is that you do it without thinking, its the unconscious part of your mind coming through,the object was made into a sculpture by it being photographed. Here he highlights his by chance findings which shows the impact surrealism had on him.(Warner Marien, 2010:253)                    

Constructivism Bauhaus & Dada

Alex Rodchenko - Stairs 1930

After the Russian revolution in 1917 when the Bolsheviks came to power being replaced by the old autocracy. It was in 1921 when  Alexander Rodchenko declared that 'painting was dead' after exhibiting 3 monochrome paintings, it seemed it was outdated by socialist realism. Rodchenko being an Artist, painter, sculptor, photographer, graphic designer and teacher changed the organisation of the art schools and museums once he was appointed director. 

Constructivism was part of making comments on civilisation and highlighting art as a way of expressing their views for society.  Signifying intellectual constructs was what photography was about once Alexander Rodchenko challenged traditional photography after the 1920's, his slogan was "our duty is to experiment'. It was also the dada manifesto which spread to Berlin and Moscow that influenced Rodchenko where writers, artists and poets met to make art that was against war and were more focused on being politically neutral. 

'Stairs' by Alexander Rodchenko shows the key features of constructivism, breaking away from tradition with the black and white image you are able to see the contrasts in the photograph emphasising the shadow areas on the step. It renders an everyday image, with it not been shot straight on, instead it has a slanted view to it where its almost diagonal.The noticeable shapes and patterns from the stairs become clear too. The politics behind this was that the stairs reminisces the Eisenstein 1925 film battleship potemkin with the famous step scene which was a key moment in the history of the Russian revolution.

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is the period of the 1960's to the modern day, this is said to be because of the reaction from modernism in terms of value. kitsch is a key feature with low art forms verses high art forms it is defined through its questioning of old limitations,  staging reality and trying to re-stage history. There is the idea that within postmodernism the original disappears being replaced with representations. With representations and rephotographed images it takes away the reality and raises questions about viewing context and the value of art.Cindy Sherman's untitled film stills concludes the definition of postmodernism. Postmodernism 'came to mean a rejection of themes and subjects that interested modernist artists' and here it is proved with Sherman resembling scenes from old B movies. Her stills show a media myth of a model interpreting stereotypical lives written by others. The difference before postmodernism is that is was 'brought up in the less image-saturated culture' with our life experiences not being raised by the media. 'While it once seemed that pictures had the function of interpreting reality, it now seems that they have usurped it' this highlights how postmodernism is almost destroying reality through representations,and Sherman does here by denying her own identity. This still image is quite cinematic which is typical of postmodernism with its refusal of narrative, the still is like a story without a story.