Situationism is defined in the dictionary as the following: The theory that human behaviour is determined by surrounding circumstances rather than by personal qualities. And as a  revolutionary political theory which regards modern industrial society as being inevitably oppressive and exploitative.

Situationism occurred between 1957 and 1972. The small group of Situationists had members of both avante-garde artists and intellectuals. The team were influenced by the concepts of Dada, Surrealism and Lettrism. The Lettrism International was a post-war poetry and music group and they used to change urban landscapes. This group were responsible for founding a magazine called ‘Situationiste Internationale’ at the very begging.

The “surpression of art” was the team’s main focus, because they wanted to separate art and culture and to transform them into present time moments in life. Basically, they were aspiring to be like the Surrealists and Dadaists and sort of became on the same level as them. Early on, the Situationists was mostly based on aesthetics, therefore most members were artists. However, as time went on, they decided to create more cultural masterpieces. A man called Asger John was the most important person in this area. Predominately in 1962, they began to looks at the topic of capitalist society. They weren’t as focused on the beauty of things, and wanted to show unique messages. Guy Debord was the most significant member to practice this new technique.

Surrealism in photography has got many different interpretations. The actual word is defined as: “A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.”

It was first created in 1924 by a poet called Andre Breton. It was created in France, specifically in Paris. Here is an example of his work:

It was fully packed with a strong ideological ideas which resulted in the movement growing into such fame. Surrealism was much later than Dada and Symbolism. Whilst these two concept were focused irrational and subversive visual arts, Surrealism was quite different.

Surrealism is mostly concerned with the spiritualism, Marxism and Freudian psychoanalysis. The outcomes that were produces were very direct. They demonstrated an unusual perception. The aim was to show an unconscious representation, this meant there was a lot of freedom. Their ideas mainly went against morality and aesthetical qualities. The idea of showing an the subconscious mind intertwining with the conscious inspired them to look at dream imagery.

Cubism first appeared in 1907 and this amazing concept continued until 1916. It was the beginning of Modernism. It was another way in which photographers could exhibit their great thinking processes and express themselves. Cubism consisted of showing present moments in time. It didn’t depict any kind of religious stories. Many works from cubism only showed the artists mental view on the subject matter. The mental beliefs and views were much more in depth and they avoided showing a naturalistic observation. A naturalistic observation is defined as looking at something in it’s natural environment.

Cubism, is very different. Instead it focuses on unrealistic qualities, hence the mental beliefs, which are useful here. The elements which are intertwined into the photograph are purely aesthetical and mostly ‘out of the blue’.

Pablo Picasso created many cubism paintings. Here are some examples:

Photomontages were first created to create a new, fresh and different presentation of photographs. Since the conventional style was becoming too boring and typical. A photomontage is made by chopping up photographs and then composing them together again in different manners. During the time that the concept of photomontage was first created, the world was going through the war, big revolutions and large political struggles. This concept became an outcome of all of this commotion.

The montages exuded the chaos of the war age and showed the negative sides of the revolution as well. It was always very unique and each photomontage would show the many strange and different views. In result, many different concepts were thought of. An example was the concept of juxtaposing photographic banalities.