Watch a video interview with Andrea Rosen, curator of Under the Surface: Surrealist Photography, produced by student assistant to the curator Kiyomi Mino ’16. My Favorite Objects in “Under the Surface: Surrealist Photography” from Bowdoin Art Museum on Vimeo. Related posts: Frederick Sommer, Max Ernst, 1946 Frederick Sommer, Max Ernst, 1946 Grete Stern, Dream 28, […]
André Kertész, Meudon, 1928
By Tracey Faber, ’16. The wonder of photography, hinging upon its essential character as a mirror image of the ‘real,’ is in what it captures. Yet the true marvel of the medium is in what shimmers around the edges of the photograph: the extension of a narrative, the knowledge that a moment in time has […]
André Kertész, Meudon, 1928
by Sam Miller ’15. André Kertész’s photograph Meudon exudes a distinct sense of alienation by exemplifying surrealism’s exploitation of accidental juxtapositions. The first word that came to mind when looking at this photograph was ominous. There is something unsettling, something sinister about this scene. While nothing is perceptibly “wrong,” it actively radiates an implication that […]
Eugène Atget, Versailles, ca. 1900-1920
by Owen Haney ’14. Arguments abound the work of La père Atget, or “Father Atget,” as Man Ray fondly (with a touch of condescension) dubbed the Parisian photographer. Contemporary critics struggle to classify Atget’s late-nineteenth-century photographs as surrealist, modernist, or something else entirely. After all, it was only at the end of his life that […]
Eugène Atget, Cour, 28 Rue Bonaparte, Paris, 1910
by Claire Aasen ’14. In considering what constitutes surrealism, I found all of Atget’s photographs compelling; it is interesting to me that Atget himself did not consider his work “surrealist.” He saw himself as a maker of documents, and it was other, more assuredly surrealist artists like Man Ray who first applied the term to […]
Man Ray, Space Writing (Self-Portrait), 1935
by Meg Bunke ’14. This photograph is surprising because of its diminutive size, which is more suggestive of a wallet photo than a photograph displayed in a museum. The photograph’s size makes it seem unassuming next to larger works, despite being taken by such a revered artist. Man Ray uses a long exposure to capture […]
Man Ray, Space Writing (Self-Portrait), 1935
by Jesse Ortiz ’16. Initially, Man Ray’s Space Writing (Self-Portrait) confused me. But as I continued examining the photograph, the layers unraveled—the squiggled “writing” exists in a plane on top of a blurred background. Right away, I saw the hand in the lower right corner. This hand led me to realize that the blurred background […]
Frederick Sommer, Max Ernst, 1946
by Jordan Goldberg ’14. I found Frederick Sommer’s portrait of Max Ernst to be extremely compelling. Formed by overlaying the negatives of the portrait of the artist and a photograph of a concrete wall, the composite result displays a confusion of perspective that plays very interestingly with shallowness and depth and creates a disjunction through […]
Frederick Sommer, Max Ernst, 1946
by Walter Wuthmann ’14. At first glance, Frederick Sommer’s photograph, Max Ernst, 1946, looks like an incredibly well-painted mural. Some of the body is wearing away; white streaks carry his skin down the wall like rain damage; the roughness of the wall bubbles up through his skin, implying time and weather and wear. His eyes remain […]