NCHC Portz Scholars Presentation: “Documentary Photography and Surrealism in Interwar Paris: A Dialectical Resolution”

In 1924, with the publication of the Manifeste du Surréalisme by the poet André Breton the Surrealist movement was officially launched. Surrealist photography at first was mainly produced in the darkroom through the manipulation of negatives often using techniques such as photogram, multiple exposure, solarization, etc. This work endeavors to establish a dialectical reconciliation between the real and the surreal, and between the real and the constructed. Underpinning this study is the premise that a single photograph may shift meaning as it moves from the place where it has been taken to the place where it is published or viewed.