20 year old surrealist photographer

Some really cool shots! I love surrealism in paintings, and some surrealist photography really presses the right buttons with me as well. Some of his shots are definitely connecting with me :)
 
It's creative, but quite bizarre at the same time. I don't really connect with the concept of "photography as art".

And I'm going in the opposite direction. Representational photography (not sure this is the right term, but what I mean is capturing a scene as it exists) is less interesting to me all the time. Don't get me wrong. Captures of extraordinary moments or a scene that others are not likely to see fall into a different category for me.

I guess it's good that there are so many different aspects to photography. I'd hate to ONLY see landscapes, or ONLY flower macros, or ONLY street shots, or ONLY portraits. My taste is kind of "pot luck", but gravitating towards the kind of shots that NO ONE else has in their portfolio.
 
It was interesting initially (reviewing his set on flickr), but he's very repetitious. Lots of "c" shaped body posts. Half-eyes closed, looking to the left or right, hanging from cloth. I like the idea of surrealism, but he's going to need more concepts. But it sounds like he's just getting started, so lots of room for growth and learning. It will be interesting to see how he develops.
 
Interesting stuff. Shows where you can go with a simple Photo-A-Day project, imagination and lots of time. Most of the stuff we do and see is documentary photography, he does in a art genre of photography. I'd prefer to shoot something in between his full manipulation of the medium and documentary ... more like abstract, where one captures an artistic effect from an existing subject without any manipulation.

Gary
 
Nic, I know what you mean, and for my own photography I prefer to just stumble upon something that I find wonderful, and show my wonder in a photograph. I think most of us here are like that, and it's a type of photography that leans heavily on having the eye, compositional skill, timing and sometimes stealth necessary to translate your vision into an image. This guy's photography starts out with a concept, and then relies on creativity to turn that concept or emotion into an image. The cleverness usually isn't in the photographic skill, but in the concept first, and secondly in the way the concept has been brought to life. Once you accept that, I think it's a lot easier for us who love photography not only for the resulting images but also as an activity and a skill to practice, to appreciate the works of artists like Kyle Thompson.

From his shots, I prefer the shots that didn't require photoshop to make the concept work (for instance, I prefer the balloons/suit shot over the cloth wings shot), and in general I prefer scenes that, although unlikely and dreamlike, you could in principle find in real life without having to break any laws of nature. I feel the same way about surrealist paintings; I much prefer Magritte over Dali, for instance.
 
I've seen his work before and he does some really cool things. Much of which, like the floating concept Luke shared with us a short time ago, I have no idea off hand how to set up. After a while I would tire of doing it, all the self photos, but I have heard it is an excellent way to work on your skills and overcome possible awkward feelings of being photographed. A better acceptance of self I guess. See Anna Gay for more of that..
 
Photography as therapy? I find all the attention on himself disturbing, even narcissistic, which is not all that unusual for a kid his age. And he's a technical whiz kid, that's for sure. It's hard not to admire the results, though I can't say I really like them. But he obviously has talent and dedication, and will probably do well.

I've seen his work before and he does some really cool things. Much of which, like the floating concept Luke shared with us a short time ago, I have no idea off hand how to set up. After a while I would tire of doing it, all the self photos, but I have heard it is an excellent way to work on your skills and overcome possible awkward feelings of being photographed. A better acceptance of self I guess. See Anna Gay for more of that..
 
I don't doubt that he is doing something unique and he is certainly has great imagination and talent for what he is doing, but personally I just don't get it...at all. After looking through more of his photostream I actually find some of it to be quite disturbing.
 
Photography as therapy? I find all the attention on himself disturbing, even narcissistic, which is not all that unusual for a kid his age. And he's a technical whiz kid, that's for sure. It's hard not to admire the results, though I can't say I really like them. But he obviously has talent and dedication, and will probably do well.

My comment was more related to Anna Gay who was uncomfortable with her appearance at first and then became more accepting of herself as she practiced her photographic skills using herself as subject. She photographs otherwise of course but it was her simple solution for learning lighting etc sans models..
 
Well, I don't know her work well, but I think it is interesting and fun. She may be her own model, but the subject of the pictures is not her as herself. I"m not at all convinced that is the case with our young friend the surrealist, although his concept making might get him there in time. Right now I don't think he is successfully pointing beyond himself, but rather calling focused attention to himself. The fact that we are talking about him on this forum indicates he has managed to do something significant, even if it doesn't much suit me. And as I said, he is talented, dedicated, and a skillful craftsman. That's pretty good for 20 and being a year from starting photography.

It's also true, I confess, that I find lots of "conceptual art" long on concept and short on anything that convinces me, artistically or intellectually. But people like different things.

hmm Lawrence, wonder what you make of Cindy Sherman?
 
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