Both photographers I was lucky enough to meet  (Tanja Deman and Jonny Briggs) adopt the ‘surrealist’ approach to their photography despite the artists having different meanings and approaches.

What is surrealism?

“a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.”

Avant – garde developed in the mid 1800’s as artists produced more radical or unorthodox work which opposed mainstream society and inverted social expectations.

The driving point behind selecting the study of surrealism is the focus on the inversion of society’s expectations as photographs should be iconic and recognisable. The unique nature of the art genre allows a dynamic approach and there is no limits, an exciting factor. For me, the surrealist images I’ve studied are amongst the most interesting I’ve viewed since my thorough study of the subject.

A photographer who followed the surrealism criteria who lived locally from 1937 until her death in 1954 was Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob or more commonly known as, “Claude Cahun”.