The diversion of the real operated in the photographic image has the capacity to lead the spectator towards confusion, astonishment, laughter. Indeed, these images suggest a paradoxical, strange reality, which does not follow from logical laws, and impel the spectator outside of his experience. These are images that seem arranged according to rules that we ignore, laws that do not apply to the world as we know it. Conscious memory can hardly provide explanatory elements in relation to the image that we see, and we find ourselves close to a dream, we come close to the unconscious.
André Breton, in his manifesto to surrealism in 1924, was one of the first to clarify one of the most important mechanisms for diverting reality in the image: photomontage. Quoting Pierre Reverdy, he writes:
“The image is a pure creation of the mind. It cannot arise from a comparison but from the bringing together of two more or less distant realities. The more distant and accurate the relationship between the two close realities, the stronger the image will be…”1
Based on this proposal by Reverdy, Breton attributes a form of power to the image recomposed from elements of proven existence in objective reality. It is in this same manifesto that Breton defines automatic writing, of course, referring above all to literary creation, but inscribing photography within the process of surrealist creation.2. Indeed, automatic writing would be, according to Breton, a “true photograph of thought”.
Breton’s reflection follows the first experiments with photomontage: those of the Dadaists. Indeed, the Dadaists were the first to see a new use value of photography: use of the photo booth (as a little theater scene of self-mockery), use of forensic photography, change of captions to give a new dimension of reading images.
figure1 Raoul Hausman,ABCD, 1923-1924
It was in Berlin in the 1920s that editing emerged among the Dada, inspired by Cubism and Futurism. But, unlike the latter, the Berlin Dada have exploited the expressive possibilities of this technique of image composition. The Dada make their montages with press clippings. They play on the dynamic effect of the composition, on the notions of plan and scale. Very important: the Dadas scatter words and letters on their compositions, and experiment with the effect of the words and letters on the image3.
Among the Dadaists, we find one of the artists behind the most brilliant collages: Max Ernst. His particular technique involves erasing the image which aims to conceal the technical achievement: The imageis however absurd, constructed from free associations. Ernst’s work is poetic, and close to the imagination of the unconscious, to dreams.
figure2 Max Ernst,The swan is very peaceful, 1920 /The Chinese Nightingale, 1920
In a similar approach, it is possible to evoke the photography of Man Ray, one of the most famous surrealist photographers. However, it should be emphasized that this artist often realizes his “montages” directly in reality, which is staged. A Parisian by adoption since 1921, Man Ray was one of the main actors in the avant-garde movements which fertilely stirred the intellectual and artistic life of Paris.4.
figure3 Man Ray,Gift, 1921 /The Violin of Ingres, 1924
In these examples of the work of Max Ernst and Man Ray, we see the device identified by André Breton in full application. It is the bringing together of distant realities that drives the strength of this type of image. Beyond the formal analogy, the violin and the woman’s body share very different universes in the real world, as do the swan and the biplane. Or the crampons which have a completely antagonistic meaning to that of the iron. These elements, decontextualized, combine in an image capable of confusing us at first sight, and of amusing us once we have understood the artist’s proposal. This surrealist game, derived from Dadaist experiments, attacks rational thought, considered limited and faulty. Indeed, for the surrealists, the true face of reality is not found in the immediacy of perceptible reality, but in the bosom of a hidden reality, which, being more “real” than perceptible reality, functions in the background of the individual consciousness. It is the unconscious world studied by Freud, and which surfaces during the dream, the field of action favored by the surrealists. Photography therefore turns out to be an ideal instrument, capable of setting up the surrealist device thanks to the montages. Indeed, it was the young medical student André Breton, who was assigned during the First World War to the military neuropsychiatric center of Saint-Dizier, the first to grasp the creative possibilities of the activity of the unconscious. Breton goes so far as to try the which by being more “real” than perceptible reality, functions in the background of individual consciousness. It is the unconscious world studied by Freud, and which surfaces during the dream, the field of action favored by the surrealists. Photography therefore turns out to be an ideal instrument, capable of setting up the surrealist device thanks to the montages. Indeed, it was the young medical student André Breton, who was assigned during the First World War to the military neuropsychiatric center of Saint-Dizier, the first to grasp the creative possibilities of the activity of the unconscious. Breton goes so far as to try the which by being more “real” than perceptible reality, functions in the background of individual consciousness. It is the unconscious world studied by Freud, and which surfaces during the dream, the field of action favored by the surrealists. Photography therefore turns out to be an ideal instrument, capable of setting up the surrealist device thanks to the montages. Indeed, it was the young medical student André Breton, who was assigned during the First World War to the military neuropsychiatric center of Saint-Dizier, the first to grasp the creative possibilities of the activity of the unconscious. Breton goes so far as to try the the field of action favored by the surrealists. Photography therefore turns out to be an ideal instrument, capable of setting up the surrealist device thanks to the montages. Indeed, it was the young medical student André Breton, who was assigned during the First World War to the military neuropsychiatric center of Saint-Dizier, the first to grasp the creative possibilities of the activity of the unconscious. Breton goes so far as to try the the field of action favored by the surrealists. Photography therefore turns out to be an ideal instrument, capable of setting up the surrealist device thanks to the montages. Indeed, it was the young medical student André Breton, who was assigned during the First World War to the military neuropsychiatric center of Saint-Dizier, the first to grasp the creative possibilities of the activity of the unconscious. Breton goes so far as to try thetechnique of automatic or uncontrolled mechanical monologue, used on the mentally ill during the Great War. He declares himself “all occupied with Freud”5at the time.
Raoul Ubac’s work is based on a different approach. As a result, his images operate in a register other than that of the images we have seen of Man Ray or Max Ernst. Ubac experiments during the creation of the image in the laboratory, minimizing (a priori) the role of reflection, in order to leave room for accidents. Chance is master of the final rendering of the photographic print, which is subject to different processes, the control of which is as difficult as it is not desired. Ubac solarizes his tests, he burns them, he thus obtains a result beyond the control of conscious reason. This approach, based on the forces of the unconscious, agrees with the idea of objective chance. This idea, however complex, is associated with a break in the laws of causality (laws of cause and effect), combined with the appearance of the unconscious desire which manifests itself in reality, according to disturbing forms. In the words of Breton, objective chance can be interpreted as the“a form of manifestation of external reality that makes its way into the human unconscious”6.
figure4 Raoul Ubac,The Nebula, 1939 /Penthesilea, 1938
Breton’s writings clearly define the intention behind Surrealist activity, when he defines the movement:
“ENCYCLE. Philos. Surrealism is based on the belief in the higher reality of certain forms of associations neglected until it, in the omnipotence of dreams, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to permanently ruin allother psychic mechanisms and to substitute for them in solving the main problems of life…. »7
The evocative power that can be attributed to this type of manipulation of the photographic image (misappropriation of prints, montages) has constituted one of the axes of evolution in the history of photography. The montage device, very quickly applied in photography (eg O.Rejlander at the end of the 19th century), used by Dadaism and theorized within surrealism, continued to be part of the artistic approach in photography throughout the 20th century. , and even nowadays.
The work of the Latvian artist Misha Gordin, from the 1970s, approaches the question of photographic montage in a different form to that of the surrealists in the 1930s. Although the rendering of his images may seem related to that of surreal images, Gordin cannot be cataloged as such. Indeed, while for the surrealists the frame of the image was the scenario of a collision of elements of reality aimed at the unconscious sensibility, Gordin uses photographic montage to give visible form to ideas and concepts. Gordin does not have an artistic training, and develops his work in great artistic isolation. He developed a style completely out of step with the “straight photography” valid in America at the time. The artist works around the materialization of concepts and ideas. His work stems from the intention to create allegories, but these allegories do not present themselves as immediate upon reception, leaving room for a freer interpretation of the image. Indeed, his photographic series with an allegorical content are difficult to understand without having recourse to titles, and in this case we can admit the possibility of a certain autonomy. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity. His work stems from the intention to create allegories, but these allegories do not present themselves as immediate upon reception, leaving room for a freer interpretation of the image. Indeed, his photographic series with an allegorical content are difficult to understand without having recourse to titles, and in this case we can admit the possibility of a certain autonomy. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity. His work stems from the intention to create allegories, but these allegories do not present themselves as immediate upon reception, leaving room for a freer interpretation of the image. Indeed, his photographic series with an allegorical content are difficult to understand without having recourse to titles, and in this case we can admit the possibility of a certain autonomy. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity. which leaves room for a freer interpretation of the image. Indeed, his photographic series with an allegorical content are difficult to understand without having recourse to titles, and in this case we can admit the possibility of a certain autonomy. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity. which leaves room for a freer interpretation of the image. Indeed, his photographic series with an allegorical content are difficult to understand without having recourse to titles, and in this case we can admit the possibility of a certain autonomy. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity. Gordin’s work has not attracted the attention of historians of photography, perhaps because it remains completely outside of contemporary trends in the United States (country where the artist resides). For his part, Gordin did not theorize his work either, remaining attached to a form of asserted simplicity.
figure5 Misha Gordin, seriesShadows, 1972-1983
Another example of the recent use of photomontage can be found in the work of Spanish artist Chema Madoz. Trained in art history and photography, he develops his photographic work through small, simple installations, but full of humor and irony. The artist presents a work whose staging acts as a parody of the real world.
This form of humor was already present in Ray Man’s “gift”, or in his wife-violin (figure3), except that the Spanish artist systematically brings the surrealist device back to the banality of objects from the real world, skilfully diverted to highlight its characteristic features. With Madoz, the diversion of reality causes a form of tension when the image is received. Indeed, we see an abandonment of objects by shapes, which are printed on other objects that are strange to it, as in the image of the tray which hosts typical shapes of the non-existent cheese. Or else, the elements belonging to distant realities, combine to form an unstable and absurd situation (mirror scale).
figure6 Chema Madoz Untitled / Untitled
The works of Max Ernst, of Man Ray, or those more recent of Chema Madoz, confirm the validity of the surrealist device for creating images, throughout the history of photography. This strength lies in bringing together distant realities. The intention that motivates the work of these artists seems similar: to confuse the spectator, to establish a parody of reality, to unmask the automatisms of perception based on the associations of simple forms.
Raoul Ubac’s images, or those of Misha Gordin, work on another register. The diversion of reality is done at Ubac as the result of a photographic laboratory practice, leaving room for chance, for accidents. Gordin follows a more controlled approach. The images of these artists evoke fantastic ambients, stimulating imagery associated with dreams. Images that present the appearance of ghostly characters, which seem to come from parallel realities, or supernatural worlds.
Bibliography
A.BRETON, Manifestos, 1924
André Breton,Manifestos of Surrealism, Gallimard, 1924
A.BRETON, Not Lost, 1924
André Breton,Steps Lost, Gallimard, 1924
Q. BAJAC, 2010
Quentin Bajac,Photography, from daguerreotype to digital, Gallimard, 2010
A. BRETON, 1937
André Breton,Crazy Love, Gallimard, 1937
J.PIERRE, 1987
Jose PIERRE,André Breton and painting, The Age of Man, 1987
M. LAVIN, 1993
Maud LAVIN,Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch, Yale University press, 1993
A.ROUILLE, 2005
André ROUILLE,Photography, Gallimard, 2005
A. BAZIN, 1958
André BAZIN,What is cinema, Deer, 1958
D. BAQUE, 2004
Dominique BAQUE,Fine art photography, the contemporary extreme, Editions du Regard, 2004
JF.CHEVRIER, 2006
Jean-François CHEVRIER,Jeff Wall, Ed. Hazan, 2006
H. DAMISCH, 1963
HubertDAMISCH, “Five notes for a phenomenology of the photographic image”,ARC, No. 21, 1963
W.BENJAMIN, 1938
Walter Benjamin,The Paris of the Second Empire at Baudelaire, 1938, Payot
Webography
AndersGünther, “On Photomontage”
tumults1/2007 (No. 28-29), p. 105-117
URL:www.cairn.info/revue-tumultes-2007-1-page-105.htm.
André Gunthert’s blog
“Retouching, a moral matter”
http://www.arhv.lhivic.org/index.php/2008/03/18/662-la-retouche-une-affair-de-morale-1
Exhibitions
Manipulating Reality: How Images Redefine the World
http://www.strozzina.org/manipulatingreality/e_catalogo_jb.php#content
The sabotage of reality
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/ressource.action?param.idSource=FR_E-9452e685685eed833c8b2628f8197142¶m.refStatus=nsr&conceptPermalinkId=co48GLq&resourcePermalinkId=rGEnXbo
History, artists’ views
the Hotel des Arts in Toulon, 2013
DADA
Center Pompidou from October 5, 2005 to January 9, 2006. Educational file:
http://mediation.centrepompidou.fr/education/ressources/ens-dada/ens-dada.htm#photo
MAN-RAY
Center Pompidou from December 9, 1981 to May 2, 1982. Educational file:
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cn6eAK/rE5xAb#undefined
A.BRETON, Manifestos, 1924, p.31
Q.BAJAC, 2010, p.187
Pedagogical file exhibition, “DADA, from October 5, 2005 to January 9, 2006“. Centre Pompidou
Man Ray, the event. Exhibition at the Center Pompidou: December 9, 1981 – May 2, 1982
A.BRETON, Not Lost, 1924, p.236.
A.BRETON, 1937, p.31
A.BRETON, Manifestos, 1924, p.36