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Dr ROBERT ORGAN |
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SURREAL 2009 |
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“Surreal” is a series of photographs
taken during 2008. The photographs are typical of
surrealist works, featuring the elements of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions
and non sequitur (humour). They can be broadly classified into three groups:
Group 1 Photographs of objects which are
deliberately contrived to be surreal in nature, e.g. a surreal sculpture.
Group 2 Photographs of objects where are not
deliberately contrived to be surreal in nature but become so because of their
circumstance, e.g. their arrangement, orientation or location. The circumstance may be created
deliberately or randomly.
Group 3 Photographs of objects which are
neither deliberately contrived to be surreal in nature, nor become surreal
because of their circumstance, but become so because of the composition, or
perspective, selected by the photographer.
The series alludes to the “Ishikawa
project” previously created by the photographer. Grouping of photographs according to the
themes of “people”, “plant”, “product”, “place” and “process”, the core
methodology in the “Ishikawa project”, is evident. However, the current series is necessarily
less rigorously treated and several of the themes are frequently combined
into individual photographs. All the
photographs are fundamentally documentary in style. Two important observations can be
drawn from the series. Firstly, the
majority of photographs are figurative in one form or another; some
incorporate man himself, others incorporate models of man. This seems to reinforce the concept that
surrealist works derive from a philosophy which rests within the mind of man
and thus man must appear to act as a reference point, champion or idol for
these works. Secondly, many of the
photographs involve reflective imaging.
As well as producing dream-like qualities, additional cognitive
processing is required to “unravel” such images which again reinforces the
cerebral nature of surrealist works. All of the photographs were taken
with digital cameras and printed digitally. Click here or on ‘Surreal 2009 gallery’ on the left hand side of the screen to see the photographs. |