Andre Breton - Founder of Surrealism

Andre Breton by Man Ray, 1930

French writer & poet, 1896-1966. Participated in Dada. Later founded the Surrealist movement in 1924.

 "In The Manifesto of Surrealism he issued in 1924, Breton defines surrealism as "pure psychic automatism". Automatism and the automatic: the photomaton was a readymade surrealist photography that removed the conscious, controlling mind of the photographer and took a stream of images too quickly for the sitter to compose her or himself in any but the most basic ways. The close range of the portraits and the flat background add to the sense of being surprised, taken aback, even abused, that we feel after sitting for a strip of passport pictures. The brutality that makes photomaton portraits uncomfortable makes them, for the surrealists, insightful." Jonathan Jones 2004


The photo booth came to Paris in 1928.

Francis Lewis by Andy Warhol, 1966

Andre Breton in Photo Booth

Camera-Less Photographers

ARTISTS WHO EXPERIMENT WITH LIGHT - NO CAMERAS NEEDED

WATCH VIDEOS 

HISTORY & INSPIRATION

Glass and Light, Les Rudnick

The Nameless Man - Interview with Sophie Calle

Bryan Zanisnik Keeps It in the Family

http://www.art21.org/newyorkcloseup/films/bryan-zanisnik-keeps-it-in-the-family/

I Met the Walrus

"INVENTING VIVIAN MAIER" by ABIGAIL SOLOMON-GODEAU

A GOOD READ --- 
INVENTING VIVIAN MAIER by Abigail Solomon-Godeau

I watched the new film Finding Vivian Maier by John Maloof this week at FilmScene in Iowa City. Seeing it and talking to friends about it, I was reminded of my first encounter with the photographer's work.

In 2013, I spent one week in Chicago during the month of October. My six photography students and I took the megabus from Iowa City and stayed at Cornell College's newly acquired house in north part of the city. The week was filled with many viewing pleasures and among them we saw two Vivian Maier exhibitions. The first was at the Chicago History Museum. Her images were "blown" up in various sizes on poster-like boards, strung up on cables. MORE HERE. I happened to meet the speaker there, Richard Cahan who is one of the authors of Vivian Maiers, Out of the Shadows; he told us to visit a small gallery nearby with a quite large and very impressive body of work by Vivian Maier. This was by far and beyond a beautiful and beautifully presented exhibition of gorgeous hand-made silver gelatin prints. So glad to have seen it! 

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