Artist Statement: A Senior Surreal Photo by Nicolas Fricker (2014)

In my surrealist piece, I have created a world within another. A glass residing on a cloudy beach. In the glass, a kid flying a ''hot air light bulb''. The light bulb has shattered, the kid is throwing the sand bags to slow down the fall in hope of reaching the shore. He's trying not to fall into the whirlpool that would drive him into the hidden rocks beneath soft sand laying on the beach. To create this piece, HDR photography was used for the glass (the focal point), the beach, the rocks, the clouds as well as for the main picture within the glass. Superposition of layers was used to create textures and to place the glass on the beach. My initial project was what is now inside the glass: assembling a ''Hot air light bulb'' that just shattered, and the ball in the water reflecting the environment around it. It wasn't explicit enough though, and I decided to make it its own little world within the glass. Using different types of transformation tools like wrap, perspective and puppet warp, I was able to create perspective and the illusion that the glass is placed on top of the sand and that the sand is very thin, laying over rocks.

My personal interpretation is a kid traveling the world, overcoming obstacles. The obstacle he is going through in the instant of this piece is that his light bulb overheats and shatters. He has to drop his sandbags to try to make it to the shore. He does not realize it, but his world lays within a glass. This glass lays within another world. If only he could have heated up his light bulb enough, yet not too much so not to shatter it, to fly out of the glass. Even though he can somewhat see through the glass, his envy for the thrill of discovery drives him through his adventures. Hopefully, one day he will discover what lies outside the glass.