Christopher McKenney is a photographer of conceptual art and is from Pennsylvania. He specialises in horror surrealist photography. He also does live concert photography. I really like McKenney’s unique and strange style as it stands out and is really in your face photography. McKenney’s surrealist work creates a sense of dystopia and brings the spectator into a scary, more undesirable world with blood, cloaks and seemingly possessed souls. His work ranges from burning people to self-made ‘ghosts’ covered in blankets. McKenney started making photographs back in 2012 where he first found himself in the woods with a sheet, chair and a frame.

“I like taking away identity when photographing and to leave people thinking. I only make the photos I do to express myself and what other people see or think is up to them, as long as I make them feel anything I’m ok with that.” – Christopher McKenney

Christopher Mckenney website: http://www.christophermckenney.com

Originally when looking for surrealist photographers, I came across McKenney’s and really found them interesting. Back in the summer I took inspiration from this photographer and made my own surrealist images in the woods using a sheet to cover up the body of the model in the images. I found this really fun and different and something that I want to maintain and bring back to in my exam as a key project. McKenney’s work is unusual and, unlike most surrealism photographers work, his work is based on horror and he tends to make more dystopian images. I really like that his work is not something you would expect to see from surrealism photographers and he makes his images for himself and has his own meaning behind them. His images are so different and he allows the spectator to make their own interpretations on what is going on in the images.

This image stood out most to me. It’s a really in your face image that strikes its spectators straight away. I find it so interesting. The story that I create by looking at this image is that possibly an American man who works in an office, shown by the creased suit he is wearing, who is giving up and doesn’t want to carry on with his life anymore. It also makes me think of the American dream and how it might not be so perfect and all that it is cracked up to be with this man wanting to end his life. This image is actually quite sad and makes me wonder what went so wrong in the subjects life that he wants to end it. The composition of this image is also strong as the subject is right in the centre of the image with an equal amount of water beneath him with his reflection being shown clearly. I love McKenney’s work as it is so strange yet thought provoking making me want to find out more about him as a photographer and look at more of his work. To me the gun represents the pressure placed on many people to be successful making the subject feel extremely pressured and out of his depth, which is symbolises in with the water being up to his waist. The background looks dull and gives a more chilling atmosphere to add to the main prop of the gun in the image. I feel that this image is a great visual representation of how people may actually feel and does really embody the style of surrealism photography. Also, the reflection of the subject in the water adds more to the image and makes it that much more captivating, as if the subject could be staring through the flag that is tightly wrapped around his head and staring at his own reflection.

I chose this image next as I thought it linked with the previous one with the American flag.  I really like this image as it is unusual and looks almost as if a ghost is wondering around wearing a sheet. This style of pretending to be a ghost and wearing a sheet has been around for so long with little children dressing up that way for halloween. This images brings a twist to this halloween tradition as beneath the sheet/flag there isn’t a body and it looks as if possibly it is a real ghost with the body being invisible to its spectators. I find this image interesting and want to take inspiration from this for my own work on experimenting with how I edit my photographs and to try and use more unique and different styles of photography. This image is captivating as it is so strange and leaves the spectator guessing as to how the image was made and the message that is being brought across. Something that I also noticed has that the subjects hand is on his heart, which is something people do when their national anthem comes on as a sign of solidarity and being patriotic towards their country. I also think that the detail of this is evident with the American flag being what the subject is hiding under. I find it common in surrealism work for the subjects face to not be a prominent aspect of it and that is usually covered up, which is also show in the work of McKenney where you very rarely see the face of a subject.

I chose this image as I felt the colour of the red went well with the images above. I wanted to analyse this image because the red of the grass is so bizarre and something that you would never ever see normally. I like this as a surrealism image as it is odd and is interesting to look at. It makes me wonder why the person’s arm is spread across the middle of the image almost going all the way across. It makes me want to find out more about the person and why they are in that position. It could be the blood of people who have died either in battle or just in general and the arm represents the human form giving a hint to spectators that the colour red in the grass is actually symbolic of blood. I feel that this is the meaning behind this image as McKenney does specialise in horror surrealism so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was that. I find this image more simplistic than a lot of his images and doesn’t really need much work in terms of props and models as it is just one person’s arm and the red grass could have easily been changed while editing, possibly in PhotoShop.