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)