Influences of surrealism on digital photographic illustration

Introduction

Photographs based on fine arts were painted in the early twentieth century, replacing hand engravings (drawn from photographs) and sketch art, which now tends to appear only with feature matter. News images appeared first in black and white and later in color (such as special rotogravure sections, named after an automated engraving process). Production of photography in Fine Arts has evolved dramatically from plates and flash powders, through film and paper, to digital processes (Hutt, 85). Surrealism, too, was interested in Sade, but whereas Bataille saw him as someone who should inspire fear and horror (yet be read because of that), Surrealism sought to make Sade an early advocate of sexual liberation.

Designers may use photos as fine art (converted to pen-and-ink drawings either by hand or using software) or in halftones that reproduce a range of grays in greater detail, depending on the image resolution. The low quality of newsprint surfaces cannot achieve the high photo resolution in magazines, which use smooth, glossy paper stock (Evans, 73).

Photographic designers usually arrange photographs within either vertical or horizontal frames (by scaling the image). Although the photo editor may then sharpen and crop the image, any other manipulation changes the image into a photo illustration (a label that must accompany it in the printed edition).

Discussion

Some artists associated with Dada, especially from the Paris group, went on to work as Surrealists in the 1920s and 1930s. Surrealism also viewed Enlightenment rationalism as a root of violence and oppression, but the Surrealists more often used traditional art media, such as painting; acknowledged a relationship to fine art history; and created work that was often beautiful. Surrealists were fascinated with the power of the unconscious mind and the theories of Sigmund Freud.

Several Surrealist manifestos explicitly linked the liberation of the imagination with political revolution, and many Surrealists were actively involved in communist, leftist, and anticolonial political movements. The Surrealists were aware of the tensions between their political sympathies and the prestigious art venues for their work. They began exhibiting artwork in ways that they hoped would liberate the imagination and at the same time disrupt market-oriented art spectatorship and collection (Barnhurst, 21). In 1938, the International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris brought together more than 300 individual works in a specially designed environment now widely seen as a precursor to later installation art.

Illustration

News illustrations started appearing regularly in Fine Arts in the nineteenth century, with specific techniques usually first appearing in advertisements and the editorial side adopting them later. Even so, Fine Arts were primarily typographical products until the rise of the illustrated press at the end of the nineteenth century. Photography took over many of the tasks of early news illustration, especially as a means to capture the reader's attention, because of the perceived realism of the imagery (Barnhurst, 91).

Art movements, such as Art Deco, surrealism, and pop art, have played a major role in the production of newspaper imagery. These varied styles first appeared in advertising, migrated into magazines, ...