The Dalí’s Surprisingly Surreal Photo Contest online exhibit

Alice Lenkiewicz
Nature’s Reflection      
Digital photography – montage.               
Liverpool, England

               
This piece is a photomontage combining two digital photographs I took: a black-and-white self-portrait and a coloured natural landscape. By layering them together, I aimed to create a sense of integration between myself and nature. The image carries a dark, surreal quality, focusing on the dreamlike elements of surrealism, where reality and dreams intersect.

My work draws inspiration from many photographers. For this image, I was particularly influenced by Dora Maar’s exploration of psychology, dreams, and inner states. The surrealist vision here is characterised by unexpected juxtapositions and a sense of mystery. It expresses solitude through the combination of self-portraiture and nature, which serves as a metaphorical mask, revealing an inner state and identity.

Brooke Shaden’s dreamlike self-portraits are another influence, especially her ability to place herself in imagined worlds.

I am interested in using self-portraiture as a means of exploring emotions, testing possibilities, and uncovering secrets by integrating myself with unexpected environments. This approach opens pathways for both inner and outer exploration, leading to deeper self-discovery.

Amy Horn-Norris Bradbury
Float
Original digital photo (undoctored)
Penryn, Cornwall, England

Apparently grasping onto a verdant bouquet in his dying moments. Alone in the cold dark water he last dreams of trees reflecting his soul. Sadness and happiness marry, he has become one with the beauty of nature, an everlasting cycle of birth, death, rebirth, death

Antoni Hidalgo
Shadows            
Digital collage 
Barcelona, Spain           

It’s quite early, and I’m on my way to work by public transport. This subway car is packed. I look around, and most people are either half-asleep or staring at their phones. Nobody says a word; everyone is in their own little world. We’re all together, but deep down, it seems like there’s a huge gap between all of us.

Brandon Fisher
I prayed for his soul      
Mixed media, photo collage     
Washington D.C.

“It is written
“”I prayed this night
With all my might
Broke the wall
And held you tight
She cried this night
Stay strong
For all that we gave
We kept our home
For all the nights
I prayed
Hold my hand
Don’t let go
If we ask the Gods
Pray for
Pray for the souls
That dream this night
She prayed for his soul”

It is about a family that confronts chaos. The family dies from the chaos. But is reborn. It is all brought about by conceptions of consciousness and dreams.
Questions of life and our dreams…
What brings us to the next phase of our life.
What it takes from the level of a soul…
It is made of a picture of an indigenous man from the apurina tribe …the image was taken 5 years ago…
It is mixed with an image of me and my eyes. The idea is this is the inner shaman in me talking.
Ancestral spirit. The man and image and the time the image was taken is the memory and moment that created that image 5 years ago.
It is my incite on my past. My future. For me to make understanding, make meaning of my life….
Surreal but very real for me…”

Céline Pinget
Body Language
Photography
Berlin, Germany

At first you just see a body.
At first you just a hand.
But at the end, all you see it’s me.

I remember taking a self-portrait and realized how my body looks like my hand. So I decided to take a picture of my hand.

Claire Mc Dermott
Double
Photograph 
Marshfield, Massachusetts  

London, Greater London
Playing with light and mirrors as a self-portrait. This photograph captures a moment of my time that I reveal to you, a snippet of my past.

Claudia Starkey
Fragmented     
Photography    
Marshfield, Massachusetts

We used to visit St. Petersburg often, drawn by family connections and the vibrant art scene of the area. Among my favorite places was the Dalí Museum, a space that continues to inspire me with its celebration of surrealism and the visionary work of Salvador Dalí. The museum’s atmosphere, combined with Dalí’s ability to uncover the surreal in the ordinary, has profoundly influenced much of my own artistic exploration.
When I began my Fragmented series, I drew on my personal archive of photographs, many of them candid and unposed moments of daily life. This image, created as part of the series, holds a special significance. It layers memories from one of our trips to the Dalí Museum with my daughter as the central figure, surrounded by fragments of the museum itself, including its iconic glass cupola and spiraling stairs. In the overlay, you can even spot a subtle glimpse of my daughter and husband waving from the top of the stairs.

When I saw the competition, I was thrilled and could not think of a more fitting time to share this composition.

About Fragmented series: Fragmented” is a photography series created using an intricate computer algorithm, functioning as a surrealist exploration of how the brain processes memories, replicated through modern technology. The composition blends personal photographs taken over decades. Each photograph immerses viewers in a surreal realm, engaging natural pattern recognition while presenting a puzzle that continually reassembles into new, unexpected perspectives of a dreamlike world.

Claudia Tong    
Fantasea           
Photography    
London, United Kingdom

This photo captures a surreal moment by the seaside, in a hotel room, where the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary. The warm glow of indoor lights blends with the cool gleam of streetlights along the shoreline, creating a dreamlike interplay. Everyday objects—a napkin box, a pen holder—resemble towering skyscrapers, while the seawater seems to spill into the room, merging with the wooden floor. It’s a quiet fantasy, where the boundaries of reality dissolve and the mundane becomes magical.

Cynthia Goldstein
Self Portrait on a Rainy Night
Digital photo
Valrico, Florida

I was stuck at work on a rainy night, and came out of my office to see the inside reflected outside in the humid, dripping windows and liked the distortion of the reflection and took the photo.

Dacota Maphis
Bad Dream       
Photograph       
Clearwater, Florida      

This conceptional photograph called Bad Dream is in my mind based on the fears of dying. Some dreams are movie-ish and some are surreal, this depiction is hanging on the surreal side. The aspect of this surreal photo will not answer questions only let your mind come up with answers.

Daniel Brady    
Neverland         
35mm Film Print            
London, United Kingdom      

This artwork is inspired by my love for Surrealism and surrealist landscapes. I am also interested in ideas of utopia. My submitted image attempts to capture certain feelings of mine towards youth and divinity, as well as myth and reality.

I am also drawn to the possibility of limitless space. While a blank canvas is an ideal substrate to explore such boundaries – like in Dalí’s boundless plains – the camera can also explore this idea. I hope this can offer something that at first feels out of reach, but is aspirational due to its simple reality.

There may be places that feel out of reach – a place between space and time – somewhere that should not exist – or, if it does, only for a brief moment – unending joy and exploration – somewhere dreaming. There is no shame in dreaming. It is as natural as breathing.

**Please note, I am in the process of rescanning all my film negatives to a higher resolution. This image can be rescanned to a higher resolution if needed. Many thanks for your consideration.**”

Delnara El
Time    
Photo-Collage
Kyiv, Ukraine

When I created “Time”, I contemplated the fluidity of the present, reminiscent of a plant’s growth and decay, while revisiting T.S. Eliot’s idea: “Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future.” In turbulent periods, any plans become ephemeral, emphasizing that one cannot remain detached — even from a distance.

This series intimately explores the nuanced experience of enduring traumatic events from afar, where detachment seems impossible. The choice of collage as a medium is intentional — an attempt to piece together reality from countless fragments: messages and photographs from friends and family, personal memories, and recent news from my homeland, Ukraine.

Devika Pararasasinghe
Acting kept me off the islands 
Photography on film     
Enfield, London, England

The sculptural objects settled here are modes of address to an audience that might not show. Laid back and broken down, a calling card to be there.

Scroll through different variations of
Her – (It’s very uncomfortable to
stay there), Feeler, feeder, bottom feeder,
trailblazer, cut off- /to the quake, an
empty-basket, – till I find [insert here]
her, mad-woman – in a written in absence.
Put some weights on it – dear, give it some
Luggage.
Did/you/go/home/last/night?
Where/was/home/last/night?
What-time-did-you-get-in-last-night?
Darling, it’s the immovable things
about you – in any case, one page
tells another of easy peeling,
of bottomless discovery, of
mothership – of the land we live on –
under the animality of the
Easy-peel[er].
Yes, that lurgy finally got (to) me
Tacky in how to compress, decompress
Instantiations in a way, a game
of mafia, not sold on a portrait
of me, in a decanting of how much
hard-labour I’ll do myself. I’ll wrestle
with the full scope of it: A free-fall form
madness in what comes after the wave –
I wish to see what refusal would do
to the no-go safety nets.

Diren Demir     
Home  
Analogue Photo              
Berlin, Germany

This photograph captures a doorway, a sign of home and refuge. But the distortion of the film – the wrinkles and experimental tones of its journey – gives the image a deeper meaning. Surrounded by unshakable but chaotic traces, the door reflects the human condition: durability intertwined with fragility.

These traces recall the fragility of past and memory, the scars of experience and the imperfect beauty of what we call “home”. The interplay of structure and entropy transforms a simple moment into a touching metaphor for the delicate tension between shelter and exposure.

ELAWIATR
The Reflection on the Inner Calling of Narcissus Through Quantum Time and the New Renaissance Transformation of Levels of Consciousness  
Black and White Photography, Leica Camera, Digital Print
Milano, Lombardia        

This artwork represents a deep exploration of self-reflection and the complexities of human consciousness, drawing inspiration from the myth of Narcissus. Through the lens of “quantum time,” the piece delves into the fluidity and non-linearity of existence, suggesting that time is a malleable concept where past, present, and future converge in an ongoing process of transformation. The concept of the “New Renaissance” embodies the rebirth of the self in truth. The artist explores the evolution of consciousness, juxtaposing fascinating, dreamy, and irrational aspects of the human mind with the unpredictable landscape of imagination, creating a visual symphony of oddity—a surreal symbolic masterpiece. The context of levels of consciousness, according to David R. Hawkins, introduces another dimension to the work—an evolution of consciousness from the lowest states, such as fear and obsessive desire, to higher states like love, enlightenment, and transcendence. The artwork touches on the tension between a static self-image and the continuous process of becoming, encouraging the viewer to transcend their own levels of consciousness, as these shape our identity, choices, and life experiences. All of this is a consequence, returning to us from the source from which consciousness originates.

Eliana Davis     
The Swans
Meditative Photography             
Bristol, England

I am a meditative photographer, exploring the inner child and connection to higher powers. I meditate before each image is taken and say a prayer to increase the vibration of our Earth.
I do film photography and explore the idea of the camera being an instrument to convey the inner desires of the soul. The lens being the eye of the mind.

Description
For me sometimes I feel alterity of my self to others. This image is a result of my alterity.
This image is completely candid, adding even more to the surrealism of this image. If it were staged and the swans placed there it would be simple; the surrealism stems from the process by which the photo was taken.
My process for the Image is a meditation. For this image I lay, star-shaped on the sea’s surface in Skiathos.
I could hear the hum of a boat’s engine as my ears were below the sea’s current. Hearing this, I prayed for no pollution as I thought of the aquatic life beneath.
As I opened my eyes two swans had appeared before me at the horizon. It felt like my internal monologue was replied to by the external world, it was like Mother Earth was confirming that she too wants no pollution. It felt a there was a meshing between me and another world, a blurring between Earthly and a Higher power.
Being of Scottish heritage, swans represent in Celtic traditions the soul or the eternal essence. In this image I see my soul approaching humanity, demanding change for our treatment of the planet. This image and my process was a dialogue between my soul and an eternal essence (a Higher power).
To me my alterity stems from how I see the world; others seem to be ignoring climate change, and to me we should be all doing everything we can to be healing the Earth. Doing all I can to help the Earth feels urgent to me and it seems still others are in a state of denial.
To me the shadows in the image depict the dark side to mass human culture, others admire nature but yet harm it too with their lifestyles. The white feathers of the Swans showing the purity of Nature and contrast to the shadow of pollution.
The women in this image represent relational dynamics as I see them as Mother Earth holding me, with them mirroring each other showing the balance we could have if we stopped polluting. Her holding me and showing me the Swans; the beauty of nature and how we must preserve this. Their bikinis matching the yellow sand and blue skies and sea as they represent omniscient Mother Nature, the world around us.
I love the interpretation of this image as representing Immigration. The babies representing the beginning of a new life, crossing borders and looking back across waters to homelands. The swans symbolising Peace as many Immigrants escape places of insecurity and imbalance, but missing their homelands as they look back in memory. The new land bringing balance and stability, safety as it holds the newcomer, physically represented here by the women holding the infants. This notion links to vulnerability, and the risk of Immigrating.

Elisa Noordam
Feathered Serpent       
Photography    
Albuquerque, New Mexico     

This image was captured during my trip to Sydney, Australia. I was inspired to name this “Feathered Serpent” because my friend saw this image and was so excited to share the story of it.  Albuquerque, NM was once part of Mexico. Mexican culture and tradition are still present. The Feathered Serpent is a prominent supernatural entity in Mayan and Aztec cultures. It is known as the deity of wind and rain, bringer of knowledge and Venus.

Emma Shapiro
The View From Here    
Photograph       
Spain, València              

“The View From Here” is part of a trans-media series I call “Cuerpas.” “Cuerpas” is an ongoing investigation about memory of self— it’s about the shape-shifting we do repeatedly, quickly and slowly, how we know ourselves and show ourselves while maintaining the core of who we know and remember ourselves to be.

The beginning of this investigation centered on physical collages from my previous profession as an artist’s model. The “Cuerpas” represent my past, my present, and the contortions I make through memory and perception to understand and contextualize my identity. It has continued to incorporate old video, photographs, and memories.

Eric Lee Williams          
Lighter than air… (The Stormy Day)       
Photography    
Hercules, California    

This tribute to surrealist photography juxtaposes Van Gogh, the Earth and hot-air balloons set against a turbulent sky.  The image reveals a strange, dream-like, and irrational universe that celebrates both surrealist photography and Van Gogh’s divine “madness”.  Hot-air balloons–the ingenious machines that first gave flight to man–add beauty and the symbolism of freedom, adventure, escape, vulnerability and detachment to the image.  I chose to emulate black and white film to unify the image, help detach the image from the real world, and parallel the use of black and white film by the original surrealist photographers.  This is not a Photoshopped montage.  It is a single photograph, and it was produced without AI assistance.  Yes, surrealism may be all around us, but that is not to say that it is easy to spot or capture.  I have photographed hot-air balloons at the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, NM for more than ten years.  They are notoriously difficult subjects.  They swell, bend, sag, and distort as they heat and cool and are blown about by the wind.  They exist in an environment completely outside of your control.  The weather, sky, and the light can be uncooperative.  The balloons can rotate, rise, and race away from you thwarting your efforts to create the image you are trying to compose.  The hundreds of other balloons that are up in the air at any given moment at the festival can block your view and clutter up the background of the scene.  Because the situation is constantly changing, you typically only have a moment or two to capture an image.  In this case, I stalked and chased after the Van Gogh balloon for several hours during a cold, wet October morning (be sure to search online for Van Gogh Balloon to see what this balloon looks like in real life).  In a moment of randomness–another surrealist trait–I was able to capture the two “special shape” balloons seen here.  As I was composing a shot of the Van Gogh balloon, the Earth balloon drifted into the frame.  A moment later, it was gone.  I am glad I was there to capture this fleeting moment.

Francesca Hummler
Visible Devotions
Digital photograph
Norbury, London

This photograph, taken in Nunhead Cemetery, London, features Stella, hiding behind a French board game adorned with an orchid. The board game’s design, reminiscent of a grave, echoes the surrealist iconography of the “Visible Woman” while exploring themes of queer visibility and religious introspection. During the shoot, Stella and I discussed her experiences of coming out after being raised in Catholic school, infusing the image with personal narratives about faith and identity.
The image is part of Rituals (2022–ongoing), a photographic series that examines the intersections of queerness, faith, and religious symbolism across five countries: France, Germany, the United States, Greece, and England. Inspired by my own experiences growing up in a conservative Protestant household, Rituals revisits the shame instilled by purity culture and its impact on identity, particularly as a bisexual woman. What began as experimental self-portraiture in ancient churches has evolved into a broader collaboration with queer friends, reinterpreting biblical parables and rituals.
In the series, Christian iconography is repurposed to explore the tensions between imposed identity and personal autonomy. Sacred objects and gestures, such as the communion wafer or baptismal candle, are reimagined within contemporary, queer contexts. The series also engages with queer temporality, emphasizing non-linear, fragmented experiences of time as a way to reclaim faith narratives.
“”Visible Devotions”” speaks to the broader themes of Rituals by blending personal histories with visual metaphors, inviting reflection on the complex relationships between queerness, visibility, and spirituality. Stella’s presence behind the board game illustrates the push-and-pull of revelation and concealment—a dynamic familiar to many navigating faith and sexuality in traditional settings.

Greeshma Chenni Veettil          
Experiments in States of Matter (I)        
Archival Inkjet print on foam board     
Hartsdale, New York

In this work the process of witnessing melting in real life becomes an impetus to challenge the static nature of photograph. The snow captured in the image, is digitally manipulated using the liquify tool. The image sheds its four sided existence to take a new form troubling the authenticity of what is captured in an image.

Haiping Jiang   
“Evolution” Series Four              
Conceptual image and mixed media   
Langfang City, China

Consumerism has made the price of an ordinary piece of leather increase ten thousand times and turned wage earners into beasts of burden. Twenty percent of the global wastewater, 24% of pesticides and 500,000 tons of marine plastic waste… all come from the fashion industry chain! The pollution behind it has also quietly changed the natural world until a new aquatic species has evolved.

Behind consumerism lie too many terms: traps, objectification, class, pollution…

During my underwater photography of marine life, I discovered that the evolution of underwater organisms is full of wisdom. One day, I had a sudden inspiration: if fish were to evolve in the direction favored and sought after by humans, would they be safer from the fish’s perspective? This is how this series of works came about. I used post – production techniques to create a second – layer work based on the original underwater photos, and then printed them onto canvas. After that, I carried out a third – layer creation using luminous materials, etc., enabling the works to glow in a completely dark environment, thus getting closer to the underwater fluorescence effect.

Harvey Drouillard
Aeolian Untouched
Digital photograph         
St Petersburg, Florida  

The title “Aeolian” describes a gem deposit that was caused by the wind. As if materializing from thin air this “Be-Jeweling” image was created.  With the momentum of experimentation and my new understanding of the chakras (and the colors associated with each) I set out on a series that is still evolving. In black and white the striking beauty of the subject’s form becomes a contrast of texture manifesting from nothing, like a newly discovered deposit of precious stones.

Ivana Larrosa  
The Colony       
Collage / photography 
New York, New York  

The Colony is a study of the body as a symbol of housing, immigration and gentrification based on my own experience as a homeless immigrant living in 12 places during 12 months in New York City. Through a constellation of objects and images, I investigate the impact of my permanent double vision, a consequence of a car accident, in response to spatial environments, merging elements of the cosmos with daily life.

Jack Nelson
The Sun Rests Easy
Photography double exposure
Wandsworth, London

Having grown up as an expat child in Oman and Mozambique – I have a fond interest in other cultures and people lives. Since graduating from university in 2023 I have been fortunate enough to find work in travel, leading me mostly to places in the Middle East. A place I find a deep connection to. A deeply rooted culture of respect and beauty lies there. I have worked on a small Yemeni island for extended periods of time, leading me to use my camera to explain what I see and feel. My method examines the space between my headspace and what I witness. I use photo collage to stretch the boundaries of what an image can tell, alluding to not only the truth but also something unexplainable.

This is accidental surrealism dealing with internal struggle and external understanding. As life seemingly ebbs and flows at different speeds. I set out to communicate the soul in all of us. I also look at the underlying culture around us. I am lucky to travel and use my lens as a medium.  I instantly work overlaying images in moments in-between action, during times of flux and change, both in extreme places and within extreme parts of my mind.

Jaina Cipriano 
You Tried to Bury Me     
Photograph in built set
Bedford, Massachusetts           

This photo, featuring a face emerging from or buried in soil, conveys a raw, visceral interaction with the earth, symbolizing themes of rebirth, entrapment, and transformation. It explores reclaiming or rewriting narratives, especially those tied to emotional entrapment. It’s an invitation for viewers to reflect on their own cycles of despair and renewal, encouraging them to find growth in the messiness of life.

James Johnson-Perkins              
Realms, After Darger, China/Cambodia
Gigatage – digital montage
5m x 1.2m, 2023            
Southampton, England               

This surreal image began as a tribute to Henry Darger, and has the primary goal to create something ethereal and unreal. It is based in a scene, where the upper half of the image is taken in Angkor Thom, Cambodia, using a Gigapan camara, which allows for a huge panoramic image and the lower half of the image began is another similar image taken of the Terracotta Army, in Xian, China. This scene is overlaid with hundreds of Ai generated characters. Some based on the iconography of Darger and others, are of unusual and often uncanny subjects.

Jian Luo              
Tourism              
Photography
Paris, France   

Tourists cross the streets in Shanghai during the May Labor Day in 2023.

Jiaxin Zhang     
Mayfly Photograph       
London, England           

Grandma thinking of her first lover.

Jim Blair
Winter Waves
Digital camera
Timmins, Ontario, Canada

Waves of snow highlighted by the sunrise at -25C on a tailings pond of a base metals mine.

Jina Wallwork  
The Subconscious
Painting              
Digital photo collage    
Warrington, United Kingdom    

I look at my plastic palette, peel off the dry paint, and scrunch it into a ball. I photographed many of them. Their colors relate to the painting that’s been created, but their structure and abstract forms aren’t sculpted by intention. They remind me that painting is a conscious and subconscious process. The original painting contained this, but it also acted as a distraction. The aftermath on the palette becomes more subconscious because I’m making no attempts to consider the outcome. I look at the dry paint, and it feels like another starting point in the endless cycle of creativity. I took one photo for this image and then used it to create a digital photo collage. I incorporated repetition and other techniques to bring conscious creation to an image with firm roots in an unconscious process. Through an alteration of the aesthetics, I want the viewer to understand why I find these clumps of dry paint so fascinating.

Jing Wang          
Lost & Fixated 
Photocollage   
San Francisco, California          

This artwork, created using the photocollage technique, depicts pieces of wood on a beach, a hidden mechanical eye, and a senior man walking hunched over a stretch of discarded construction wood. The sunlight casts a unique texture across the sand, transforming it into a desert-like terrain. The man walking on the abandoned construction wood appears visually engulfed by the surrounding desolation, making him hard to distinguish at first glance. His demeanor seems detached from his environment, echoing the hurried, strained existence many of us endure today.

The man, the abandoned construction wood, and the desert collectively symbolize the spiritual and existential state of modern life: the pressures of living have become suffocating, leaving people rushing through life with no time to consider whether they’ve lost themselves in a spiritual wasteland or whether the path they tread is even the right one. The discarded construction wood beneath the man’s feet represents tasks or pursuits that are obsolete or on the verge of becoming so—yet he neither reflects on nor questions them, continuing forward numbly and indifferently.

Beyond the concept of a spiritual wasteland, the desert also signifies the vast, unexplored world of the unknown. The man’s focus on the abandoned construction wood under his feet reflects how the burden of life stifles creativity, and leaves no room for exploration or discovery of uncharted possibilities. The length of the discarded construction wood the senior man has walked over implies that he has spent nearly his entire life caught in this hurried and numbed existence, and even now, he is unable to stop.

Behind the man there’s a piece of wood gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight, symbolizing a missed opportunity—something precious and potentially life-changing that he overlooks because he is so fixated on the path immediately before him. Meanwhile, a mechanical eye, half-buried in a sand pit ahead, quietly watches him. It represents the inevitable rise of the future, the AI era. Whether we acknowledge or ignore its presence, whether we adapt to the trend or remain consumed by the present, the arrival of AI is an unavoidable certainty.

The artist seeks to connect with the viewer on a subconscious level through this artwork, awakening and inspiring them to break free from the burdens of daily life, reflect, recalibrate, and explore new possibilities for their future.

Joseph Read    
Biophobia         
Digital photography      
Chesham, Buckinghamshire   

Biophobia is a glimpse into mankind’s relationship with nature. It explores the physical and psychological connection we all share with our environment.

Kaitlyn Brockley
Fat Dog @ Manchester Psych Fest        
Photograph       
Bolton, Greater Manchester, England    

From under the strobe lights, Fat Dog emerge shrouded in mist. Chaos ensues.

Kashyap Krishna            
The Dark Tower
Digital print      
Enschede, Netherlands

I had a girlfriend that was very much into candles. I bought some so she would feel cozy while she was over at my place. Long after we had broken up I still had some left with me. One evening I decided to light one up and watched the flames dance as I kept myself busy with sundry chores. It was summertime so I didn’t bother switching on the living room lights. It was only much later when I realized that it was dark outside and that I’d been working with just the light of the candle. I sat down to enjoy the liveliness of the dancing flame. It was then that I realized that the candle had burned down to a peculiar shape. I didn’t think much of it but I did decide to pull out my camera to take some pictures of it. They didn’t seem like much until I played with the exposure and suddenly it was there, the candle had turned itself into something else. Frantically I tuned the settings to get even more varied shots. And then this shot emerged – a floating tower in a blanket of absolute darkness. Everything about it was eerie – the contrast, the pointed spires, the organic molten surface and the glow that seemed to give it life from within. What mysteries lay within? Who dared enter the dark tower?

Kathy Bruce
Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard       
Photograph       
Roscoe, New York        

Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard (A Throw of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance) is a poem by the French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé who was instrumental in inspiring the Surrealist artists’ such as Dalí with their concepts and symbolic imagery. This photograph depicts my son performing the poem– his eyes wide closed–a Surrealist inspired image– while the triangular blocks representing the whiteness of pages and sails from Mallarme’s poem read his famous words,  “NOT EVER”.

Ken Long            
Walking              
Photography    
Rocky River, Ohio          

This is a photograph of a person walking into a Whole Foods Grocery in Rocky River.  It was taken at night through a rain covered windshield, which distorted the image.  I then further distorted the photograph electronically and saturated the colors to produce the final image.

Kristina Denzel Bickford            
1:12      
Archival inkjet print      
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania         

As the surrealists were enamored with the female form, using it as a prop, visually dissecting it in imagery and sculpture, I am interested in the persistent double standard that applies to the femme body today. In this self-portrait I am asking what parts of my body are acceptable for public viewing and under what circumstances? How does that collide with the purpose of those body parts? Are we sure what parts actually are a “problem”? Dissected, is it an offense?

The nipple fascinates me as a woman, a parent who breastfed, a runner who witnesses male nipples regularly on the trails, a girl who was asked to lift her shirt by the neighbor-kid at age 9.

What have I been taught about this part of my body and what is the truth? What is the actual size of this offense? Where did the problem first appear in my childhood, and whose lens did I learn all of this through?

Lauri Lew          
TLR       
Photography    
Tarpon Springs, Florida

The fractured images given by the hexagonal panels of glass alongside the presentation of the TLR outside the exhibit highlights the different aspects of photography and our ability to capture unique images from different perspectives and was made more evident during the Dalí at Night event.

Lawrence Mason Jr       
Avian Ephemeral Illusion           
Digital photograph (unmanipulated)    
Shapleigh, Maine          

I challenge myself to use camera techniques to create pictures that look like more than what they first appear to be. Shot as a handheld long exposure on a rocking boat, on a turbulent Maine lake, I maximized the opportunity for serendipity in creating an image that suggests more than what the human eye was capable of seeing in real time. Sometimes, apparently simple fireworks can have surrealist meanings.

Liu jingri             
Memories of pottery jars            
Pottery photography with jigsaw puzzles           
Yanji City, Jilin Province, China

Jilin Province Inspired by the murals in ancient caves, I have created modern ceramic works that allow art to transcend time and language to transcend reality.

Luis Cortez       
Floating Orchid Behind a Window           
Digital print      
Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City, Mexico

Relentless desire to show my feelings.
Pride upon the construction and usage of a computer.
The window frames of my grandmother’s house.
Obsession over orchids, their colors, forms, textures and relevance on god, the human race and existence.
Ecstatic gratitude towards all forms of intelligence.

Marcia Shubert              
The Mantis Effect Three Dimensional
Collage               
Amesville, Ohio 

Praying Mantis and Ants figure predominantly in Dalí’s work. As a child I was really into bugs. The hardest part for me was pushing a pin through their bodies for creating a specimen collection. A female praying mantis will devour her partner after mating. Nature is interesting. In this scene she is again devouring her mate, and the ants look on. Surreal and Curious.

Mauricio Sanhueza
Copycat
Photography
Lima, Peru

Throughout the centuries dreams have been to many cultures around the world the images that speak of the future. In modern times dreams were seen as a connection to the unconscious. The character is pursuing the ultimate experience of freedom and glory but when he reaches the sun, his wings begin to melt and he falls into reality. Copycat: Anglo-American. 1. Someone who imitates or copies (style, dress, ideas, etc.) another person. 2. A type of crime committed by someone who copies or mimics the methods of another. This project rather than simply attempting to copy, instead pays tribute to cinema in general because there are direct as well as indirect references to particular cult film scenes and characters.

Mengqi Xia
“Dream Visitor”
Photography    
London, United Kingdom           

This work is a visual journey where the boundaries between reality and dreams blur, inspired by fragments of alien encounters in the subconscious. Soft glows and floating forms hint at mysterious visitors—distant yet intimate, existing only on the edge of awareness. The piece seeks to capture the indescribable atmosphere of dreams, exploring humanity’s curiosity and fear of the unknown. Through shifting light and overlapping layers of reality and illusion, the image immerses viewers in a surreal space, inviting them to uncover the unanswered mysteries of the dream world.

Michael Goodey
The enigma of beauty
Digital photo
Colchester, United Kingdom

One of a series titled Modern Nudes, a portfolio devoted to the nude in art. 

The work is created using mannequins inspired by 1938 International Surrealist Exhibition; the mannequins arranged in installations and the end result is a photograph.

Missy Scanlon
Home  
Photography    
Clarendon Hills, Illinois        

This sunset stopped me in my tracks.

Monica Carvalho
Keyed  
Digital print      
London, United Kingdom         

“Keyed” is a surreal photomontage I created to explore the idea of unlocking creativity. I wanted it to feel like a visual reminder to stay curious and open-minded, and to look for inspiration in unexpected places. It’s a piece that’s really personal to me because it reflects my own journey of trying to push past self-doubt and keep creating.
I’m Monica, a Swiss-Portuguese surreal artist based in London. I make photomontages that blend reality with dream-like elements. A lot of my ideas come from my travels, everyday observations, and moments where my imagination just runs wild. I love playing with images to create something that feels a bit strange but also meaningful. My work often touches on themes like creativity, emotions, and self-discovery, and I hope it encourages people to see everyday things differently.
“”Keyed”” is one of those pieces that came from a simple idea but ended up meaning a lot more to me as I worked on it. It’s about unlocking new ways of thinking and trusting the process of creativity, even when it feels challenging. I hope it inspires others to do the same.
Both photos were shot with my Nikon D5100, combined in Adobe Photoshop, and post-edited in Lightroom. No AI was used.

Nicola Gibson 
Rat in a Cage   
Digital 
Thetford, England            

This is a single exposure over several minutes using a hand held flash gun to re-expose the subject in 2 locations. This is part of a series called Park in the Dark exploring muliflash exposures to create surreal images. This is based on skills required in my position as a former forensic photographer where images (in the uk) cannot be edited and must be well lit across the entire scene within a single exposure.

Nikol Pintová
Fragility and Resilience of Man Digital
Print     
Nový Jičín, Czech Republic       

The artwork depicts a pristine egg in chains. The egg, a universal symbol of potential and new beginnings, stands in stark contrast to the chains that represent life’s myriad limitations and challenges. These chains encapsulate societal expectations, personal struggles, and external constraints that weigh heavily upon us. Yet, despite their oppressive presence, the egg remains unbroken. This juxtaposition underscores the innate strength and endurance within each individual. The artwork captures fragility and resilience of a man, showcasing the profound strength found in our most vulnerable moments. This artwork invites viewers to reflect deeply on their own resilience. It is a powerful reminder that within fragility lies immense strength, and in the face of life’s relentless challenges, our most vulnerable aspects can reveal the greatest fortitude. The combination of the egg and chains as a visual metaphor invites viewers to reflect on their own fragility and the strength they maintain in the face of life’s various challenges.

Oana Stanciu
The Kiss
Photography
Edinburgh, Scotland

My art practice combines performance, photography and moving image where I use my body, different objects and environments to create surreal and subtly distorted self-portraits. ‘The kiss’ is part of a larger series of self portraits called “”Stai în banca ta / Behave”” where I altered items of furniture to turn them into wearable sculptures. For this image I altered a table top by cutting holes into it, allowing my arms to pass through and partially concealing my body to create the illusion of two people interacting.
Furniture surrounds us in our homes, like silent observers of our lives. These objects carry memories, like cemeteries or homes for people’s stories, yet they are often taken for granted, inanimate and functional, and when they don’t serve their purpose or are not in trend, they get replaced. “Stai în banca ta” is a common expression in Romanian which translates as “Stay at your desk”, meaning to behave or know your place. I draw a parallel here with furniture, envisaging a world where these objects can break free from our expectations of them, coming to life and merging with human forms to create surreal creatures that live and breathe and move, awakening our imagination to see things differently.

Olana Light       
Searching for a Place to Belong PTST   
Photography    
Havant Hampshire, United Kingdom

“Searching for a Place to Belong” is an ongoing photography project that explores women’s relationship with nature, the environment, and what it means to be part of the natural world. Inspired by the landscape and its elements, the project reflects on how our surroundings profoundly influence identity and the sense of belonging. My continued exploration of finding a sense of belonging and discovering my place in the world has deepened my understanding that women are an integral part of nature. This idea of unity with the natural world is central to my work. In my practice, I blur the boundaries between self and surroundings. For me, nature is more than a backdrop—it is a source of profound emotional connection, a spiritual haven where I feel most alive. At the same time, I am acutely aware of nature’s vulnerability and fragility, emphasizing the importance of preserving and cherishing these delicate ecosystems. Through this project, I seek to examine the intrinsic connection between women and nature, highlighting our fundamental integration within the natural world. I aim to convey the message that all of existence is interconnected and that humans bear a responsibility to nurture and protect our planet. This work serves as a reminder of the beauty, strength, and fragility of our natural world while encouraging a deeper appreciation of the ties that bind us to it. By doing so, I hope to inspire a renewed commitment to safeguarding the environment and recognizing our shared place within its intricate web of life.

Paris Kyrtatas
Untitled Creation           
Photo   
Athens Greece

A simple take with some more colorful details added.

Rachael Brooke Harris
Up above they reach for the sky, but another path is hidden from the eye         
Digital photograph        
Brisbane, Queensland

With a particular interest in diaphanous layering, I am deeply intrigued by the almost hidden moments of image stacking that occur in everyday life. I notice the sky in my dark phone screen for a second before I turn it on, or in the almost invisible surface texture of water and easily illuminated natural elements such as leaves. In my practice, I use clear glass to layer reflections and long exposure drawing to play with this idea of diaphanous overlaying. The resulting images are often abstract and inspire curiosity within the viewers, sharing an ephemeral or subverted view of the known object.

Reece Livingstone        
A Smaller Space            
Photograph – chemical reaction on chromogenic photo paper exposed by printing enlarger.
Bozeman, Montana      

Lidocaine, Phenol, and Benzodiazepine are all considered neural and muscular anesthetics that block sodium channel receptors from receiving and sending pain messages to the brain. They can also inhibit other biological systems such as sight, causing hallucinations, muscular control, and taste, and may cause sedation. But what do they do to chromogenic photo paper?

 A Smaller Space displays chemical reactions joined with chromogenic paper as photographs in color. As I began this process, I found the stellar resemblance of these reactions projected with light onto the photosensitive paper. I began to make miniature stars, galaxies, nebulae, black holes, and quasars on the paper. By reactive acidic solutions, basic solutions, and neutral salts together, they ate away at the paper emulsion and dye layers, stained the paper in a broad spectrum of colors, and created natural shapes each unique. There is no control of the reactions and the form they take. After blindly mixing solutions and solids on the paper in the complete dark, I found each result after the full development process.

I find these prints calming to the mind in a similar way to how these anesthetics act on the nerves. Imagination comes through chemistry in colors and shapes as a mimicry of the large small chemical reactions playing across the universe. And so, the space you see is smaller.

Richard Ansett
dollsHouse355Z4703 
Digital photograph / C-Type archival   
London, England              

Dolls and figures give us a way to act out the scenes we see in everyday life. We can bathe, change, feed and cuddle our baby doll mimicking the way we nurture her. We can build a home or safely explore the emotions of separation. We might act out real life scenarios that are on our mind, working out things. We might practice empathy when caring for an injured or hungry figurine.

In observing our inner child play in these ways we’ll be opening a new window. Dolls and figurines allow us to create whatever world we want in that moment. We love all sorts of dolls. Some of us really enjoy those that are very life-like and made of materials that are rubbery, while others appreciate lighter rag dolls. Dolls can have a lot of hair or clothing and we can love the associated grooming activities too. Some of us love our dolls so much, we want to become them.

Richard C Fair 
Fish Supper      
Photograph       
Norfolk, United Kingdom       

I’ve got a little obsession with tinned fish. I eat it. I dream it.

Here I have projected a partially eaten tin of mackerel onto my empty plate.

Rick Marencic 
Carro Naval Mirror Universe    
Photographic collage constructed in Photoshop, inkjet print. 
Cave Creek, Arizona       

“Teatre-Museu Dalí, Figueres Catalonia: Portrait of Sarah and Jesse being driven in the Carro Naval to a mirror universe to witness the phenomenon of the lime plume.”

In 1977 I saw Dali’s art for the first time in book form at a B Dalton’s. The impression was immediate, how did he think up these things? As my art education progressed, I discovered Dalí had fallen out of favor with contemporary trends. In 1981, I moved to Philadelphia and saw the ‘Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War),’ the work still felt remote. In 2014, my family and I visited the Dalí Museum in Figueres, my opinion of Dalí as an artist and his contribution to Surrealism and Art was elevated by the depth of the collection from all stages of Dalí’s career. Trend no longer mattered to me, what I saw convinced me that Dalí had embraced and initiated many tendencies of modern art and the art of previous generations. This observation was reinforced by multiple visits to the new Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg. Recently I saw the ‘subversive eye,’ afterwards I felt compelled to enter the photo contest.

The artwork is a photoshop collage of two different photos of the Carro Naval or Rainy Taxi, it reads like an open book, mirrored pages reveal a strange ‘found’ phenomenon, the ‘lime plume.’ Visual strategies of reflection, texture and ambiguity of space are employed, are we inside or outside the taxi? Are we leaving or just arriving? Who is the photographer? The questions posed are at the heart of surrealism, how can we create a new world, of the mind, of the place where unconscious and conscious meet?  Literary strategies are employed to reinforce and underscore the visual story. The title is a clue to the mystery of the work, an idea that is central to Dalí’s strategy, the combination of visual and literary is an homage to Dalí and the work of the Surrealists and underscores the reason why Surrealism matters.

Roger Aslin       
Mummy             
Photograph       
Godalming       
Surrey 

This image is from my urban series which includes photography, painting and sculpture.

I am inspired by everyday scenes and objects.

Ronald Buening II          
Fractures of the Self    
Digital photography      
Tarpon Springs, Florida

This piece was inspired by the different, overlapping aspects we all hold within ourselves and that cast long shadows ahead of us. Numerous small spotlight-like lights used to illuminate a courtyard in Bethesda, MD provided the perfect opportunity to embody this through the many shapes created by the interwoven shadows.

Roy Lockwood
A Frog in A Frog’s Eye   
JEPG print         
Dunedin, Florida            

I am amazed at the reflections found in animal’s eyes when photographing them. Thinking about this and my frog photograph, I wondered what this frog was looking at. It was a small leap to create a photograph of a frog, framed in a frog’s eye.

Saleha Rokadiya
Potato Tentacles
Digital print
Greater London, England           

Having left a bag of potatoes in the cupboard which I seemed to have forgotten about, I was amazed to find just how much they had sprouted- and just how beautiful they looked. To me, they looked like a creature from the deep ocean and so I decided to photograph it and loved what I had captured. I hope it brings a smile to your face.

Sam Horn-Norris Bradbury       
The Modern Promethius            
Digital photo (undoctored or photoshopped) 
Penryn, England             

I wanted to try and create a Dalí inspired photo that coupled the lighting of a baroque still life with the strangeness of a Duchamp ready made. I thought the two ideas would make a great surreal photograph. I’m a big fan of science fiction and so the marrying of an alligators head and a spring made me think of some kind of monsterous alligator frankenstein’s creature that a mad scientist might be working on. This also made me choose my boiler room floor as a good place to take the photo with background pipes giving the laboratory vibe and also helping to frame the image nicely. The photo is lit entirely with candles including one inside the lamp shade that gives the picture a sprinkle of colour that helps to further the science fiction aesthetic but also helps the photograph feel modern and not too monochromatic.

Sara Bahrani    
Flying Cat           
Photomontage photography    
Khuzestan, Iran

The cat takes flight; a combination of two photos, or in other words, a photomontage or superimposition of two photos.

A cat wishing to jump and an eagle wishing to fly from a perfume bottle to the oceans. The surrealistic structure created by the colors and lights in the superimposition of the layers of the two photos; as a result, the cat became a bird. Which gave me the amazing concept of flying into a surreal and fantasy world with the lens of a camera.

Sarah Hague    
Crescent Moon, One Star……..            
Digital image with manipulation            
The Castle Inn, Russell Street, Dover, UK          

…..A frosty winter’s night, by The Dour, Dover, Kent, UK

Sashko Ilov
Male World, Female Support   
Analog photography     
Wesley Chapel, Florida              

The photograph engages with the complexities of gender roles, power dynamics, and social inertia. It critiques the passive role women often play in perpetuating inequality, suggesting that the persistence of gender inequality is not solely driven by male actions but also by female complicity. The image highlights how societal norms are upheld not just through force but through subtle and often unquestioned support. The photo emphasizes that the responsibility for change rests with both genders.

Process: Hand-developed film in a traditional darkroom.

Senja Barthel  
Tapulu 
Digital print       
Amsterdam, Netherlands

“A memory; a re-de-con struction.
Somewhere between the layers lies the truth.

If I lived there, did it even exist?”

Thinking about memories is deconstructing the past. It picks aspects and layers from the actual past present. Revisiting a memory adds new layers to it; it can be an active process where reinterpretation and new insights might both form and uncover new understanding of the past and the present. This process can take place in the present as well, making perception a multilayered, self-referring experience. The title ‘Tapulu’ serves as both a variation of ‘Laputa’ and a reference to ownership.

Shirani Bolle
The Birthday Party 1
Digital photography, crochet, punch needle and embroidery  
Limerick, Republic of Ireland          

The Birthday Party 1 is from a series of 4 stylized photographs created and shot by me.  The photographs are a character driven vision of a monster like being celebrating a birthday with a young child. Set in a time that appears both futuristic and vintage, the work explores the meaning of time and examines how the past is always present in the now, through our genetics and the ancestral trauma held within our bodies. 

The work is deeply personal as it refers to my own childhood being raised by an undiagnosed autistic Holocaust survivor and a Sri Lankan immigrant but also my own parenting experiences as a recently diagnosed autistic woman. It examines how as parents our intentions may not always match our capacity as people and how we may unintentionally perpetuate the same problems for our children ultimately creating a society that never changes. The child within the photographs is a representation of myself but she is also my own daughter suggesting that as a species we recreate the person who came before us but with minuscule changes which plays with our sense of being an independent individual and creates a sense of oneness. The monster suit is made using techniques such as crochet, embroidery and Punch needle, with materials such as wool yarn, repurposed saris and old jewelry and references Sri Lankan devil dance costumes.  These types of costumes and rituals were once used in Sri Lanka combining ancient ayurvedic concepts of disease causation and psychological manipulation to cure physical and mental illness.

Sinem Tas          
Ghost of the Past           
Digital photography      
Ourém, Portugal            

The ghost of the past symbolizes a massive ball of fire, ignited by unresolved traumas that grow within over the years, while the faint remnants of childhood memories slowly fade into the shadows, representing the arduous journey of healing and inner struggle.

Stella McGarvey            
DOGWOMAN  
C-type darkroom print from Medium Format B&W negative.    
London, United Kingdom      

“DOGWOMAN (2024), is a collaboration between me (the photographer) Stella McGarvey, and Ava Cowperthwaite (the Dogwoman and art writer). Our work produced a series of 20 images, shot on a medium format camera in Walmer of Ava embodying the ‘Dogwoman’. The 20 portraits catalogue Cowperthwaite embodying and transforming into this feral woman in the forest of Deal. In response to the images she wrote an accompanying text, a quote of which is below.

‘One vibrating eye fixed on the pacing thing. Iris soaking into its silken black hair, slow bleeding into each other  – deep textures wet with longing. ‘

Stevie Newton
Jupiter And Teardrop    
Acrylic print
75×50  
Glasgow, Scotland       

Thermal hole from heat pipe sunk into canal.

Sumin Shim     
Bare     
Photography
Seoul, Republic of Korea

This series reflects my personal struggle between the constraints of being observed and the desire for freedom. The natural setting symbolizes a return to vulnerability and authenticity, contrasting with the pressures of societal surveillance. It’s a visual exploration of finding balance between control and liberation.

Suresh Babu Maddilety              
Metamorphosis on Asphalt      
Photography    
Telangana, India             

This photograph captures a scene that is both morbid and beautiful, a juxtaposition that evokes the spirit of Salvador Dalí’s surrealist masterpieces. The flattened form of the animal on the road creates an abstract composition, with its fur and limbs forming unexpected shapes and patterns. The gritty texture of the asphalt adds a layer of depth and contrast, making the image both repulsive and strangely alluring. This photograph invites the viewer to contemplate the ephemeral nature of life and the unexpected beauty that can be found in even the most mundane and tragic of circumstances.

Teresa Wolfe    
Trust the Engineer         
Digital photography art
Seminole, Florida         

The quote that inspired the digital photography art is, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” By Corrie Ten Boom. I love Surreal photography and the way it can help bring out different perspectives and allow the creativity of the mind to come out and play. We are the engineers of our lives and it is important that we trust ourselves along with the uncertainty of life. We are the ones driving this crazy train of life.

Tom Parker
Rush    
Digital photography      
London, England              

Miami’s south beach at night is a place bursting with life, sound and movement, overflowing with an impossibly diverse variety of revellers, every one of them contributing to a overwhelming sense of excitement and energy. Latin music blasts from bars filled with glistening dancers, luxury cars roar down the chaotic streets and food carts fill the air with the scent of tropical flavours, all illuminated by the ever present glow of neon lights emanating from the strip’s art deco buildings. Such an ever changing space in which one’s attention constantly shifts creates a visceral reaction, bombarding the senses with a whirlpool of stimulation, entering spectators into a dream like state.  ‘Rush’ is an attempt to capture the truly unique and overwhelming feeling this area generates, utilising long exposure photography to capture the iconic Colony Hotel; one of South Beach’s most important landmarks, engulfed in a vortex of light and colour. By utilising the area’s characteristic neon glow to create a digital kaleidoscope of energy, this piece allows the viewer to partake in the unique and somewhat indescribable sensation of experiencing one of the most animated and exhilarating places in on earth.

Tracy Harris     
Muddied            
Photography    
Cardiff, Wales 

I lost you somewhere along the line
I caught you staring back at me
In another day and time
Reflecting all the parts that had disappeared
Been lost at sea
Feeling the healing waves
Cleansing me
I longed to find you again
But you fragmented into muddy puddles
And fallen leaves
That became overgrown
In undertones of trees
never black nor white
And I didn’t recognize
the sight of your face
Or the way your heart paced
When it was ripped open
Or the way your eyes mist over
When you look over the horizon
I didn’t mean to lose you
I wanted to choose you
Above everyone else
But something made me forget that.

Val Siama          
Foxy Light          
Digital 
London, United Kingdom           

It was a rainy night in London and as I looked down a street there was a fox and a trail of garbage from its rummagings, I took the picture and shook the camera just slightly and somehow all these light trails happened from the shimmer of various light and bright paint, I got lucky but sometimes the best photos are.

Wenying Zhang
Reflection on Water     
Digital print      
Everett, Washington State      

The natural landscapes always inspire my work. I would like to treat landscape photography both as a medium and as a subject, rather than just a genre.

In this photograph, I took a photo of the beach and printed it on a transparent film. Then I took the photo print back to the same location and rephotographed the scene with this transparent film in the front. The flash on the camera leaves a reflection on the surface of the film, which mirrors my reflection on the landscape and the medium.

Wulong Wang
Visiting the Garden Series III
Photocollage   
Langfang, China             

The “Visiting the Garden” series of works commenced in 2013. All the photography for these works was taken in galleries, art museums, art districts, and artists’ studios. Through surrealist creative techniques, the artist expresses a profound perception and understanding of their living space. It also conveys to the public that art can transcend reality.

Yifan Zhong       
Budda  
Digital  
Anhui, China    

Buddha figure before dawn at Jiuhua mountain.

Yuanshen Yang             
Bustle and Quite             
Digital photography, collage                    
Sichuan, China               

Excessive information in design is the same as no information at all,’ was a very impressive statement made by a professor in a graphic design class during my 1st year of graduate school. Nowadays, we live in an age with a huge amount of information. Especially in the age of rapid development of artificial intelligence, the production of information has doubled again. When I think of the professor’s words at the moment, I feel that after all the bustle, there is only a kind of ‘quiet’.

A kind of quiet without any information content, or perhaps it can be called ‘noise’.

This series is an attempt to do just that. It is based on an experience of ‘Hanami(花見)’ (flower viewing in Japanese). ‘Hanami’ is a spring festival where families, schools, and companies gather under the cherry blossom trees in spring when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. But nowadays, the number of people in the photos of ‘Hanami’ is more than the number of cherry blossoms. Some of our friends will remember the crowd, some will remember the experience of taking photos of each other, and some will remember the cherry blossoms in full bloom. It is very interesting that our memory of the ‘blossoms’ becomes a single piece of information, and more information seems to be absent. This is the kind of ‘no information because of too much information’. Perhaps it is not limited to ‘Hanami’, but people nowadays seem to have the same kind of information. That’s why I made this work.

Yun Ki, Jay Ng
Virus World
Digital photography
Hong Kong, China

The motivation for creating this photo stems from reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic a few years ago and current thoughts about the world. While human technology and various advancements are progressing rapidly, culture and civilization seem to be regressing. More and more absurd things, once unimaginable, are happening in the world, leading me to ponder what is more terrifying: the virus or human folly. The photo uses the virus as a metaphor, employing lighting techniques to simulate a view of Earth from space, illustrating this man-made “virus”…..

Zhannet  Podobed         
Thought Cascade          
Photography    
London, England

The beauty and chaos that coexist within the realm of the mind — it is a visual journey into the depths of introspection, where the turbulence of thoughts converges to create a unique and compelling tapestry of the human experience.

Photography, Canon 500D
Camaret-sur-Mer, France
November, 2023