Erik Johansson

Erik Johansson born April 1985 is a Swedish-born photographer who creates surreal images by recombining photographs and other material. He combines images in multiple ways in order to create his own examples of believable surrealism. His techniques are so convincing in a way that causes his hyperrealities to become more effective in showing the messages that the photographer attempts to get across.

This image attempts to take an ordinary sight of  woman walking her dog and give it an other worldly, yet humorous appearance. The colour pallet within the image is emphasised with a brown hue that causes the meeting to appear more dull. This is a great choice by the photographer as it causes the effect to be even more contrasting to the rest of the image. The contrast is highlighted by the use of the colourful balloons that are suspending the dog in the image, causing the effect to appear more humorous.

This image uses the hyperreality in order to achieve some ironic humour. Within the image, we see that a vase is being gripped as if to prevent it from breaking. Instead it appears as if the person who was protecting the vase has shattered like one instead. This simple change in roles immediately immerse the audience into the surrealist world that is being created. This gives the audience ideas about other parallels that may be introduced within this world that has been set up by the photographer.

This image takes a very simple situation and heightens it with a blend of surrealism. We see a man, almost as if he has just woken up walk from room to room. In place of where his living room will normally be, we see a complex and jaw dropping backdrop. This effect can be used to suggest that we miss out on the extraordinary as we get caught up in the repetitiveness of everyday life. This is all created through the use of an everyday setting that would normally be ignored.

This image shows a road being rolled out by a someone. The effects used in this image are so seamless to the point where the audience can be engrossed into this surrealist world. The hand appears God-like as it appears from the clouds. The image is strong as a result as the hand paves and carves through the environment, ploughing through the terrain with ease.

Summary:

Erik Johansson's work serves as a massive influence of the different forms that surrealism can take. We see that Johansson uses surrealism to explore widely differentiating themes such as comedy or metaphorical thoughts on life. This is a vast difference in themes that I had previously not considered when thinking about surrealism. I had only really considered it as a way of exploring otherworldly aspects of the subject