A Guitarist's Dream: A Senior Surreal Photo by Jiale Wan (2016)

The theme of the surrealist photo I made is about showing the significance of music in my life. The color of the photo is in dark and cold because it symbolizes that although music is important to me, it doesn't make me happy. My dream of pursuing in music is dark and scary. In the photo, we see a person in black and white headless holding a guitar standing towards a big guitar in color. On the big guitar, there are flames on the strings and another headless person in color sitting on the big guitar. The picture shows how one's instrument has to be much ‘bigger' than the person in order to be in ‘color.' Being in color is to have clarity and a meaning in life. The dreamy selection of a headless man with a guitar in black and white is symbolizing someone lost in the pursuit of his dream. It is hard to see clearly and his hard to see in color. Contrastingly, on the big guitar, there is another headless man sitting on the guitar. He is not blurred as he is someone that has found the passion and dream. He is someone that I inspire to be. The photo tells the struggles of pursuing passions and dreams. It shows what it takes to for someone to walk down the road to success.

The background photo is in HDR. I had to cut out one of the electrical posts so the big guitar can take its place. There are also selections of clouds in HDR on top of the existing background to show more depth in the sky. The guitar is big and connected with the electrical wires because it shows how the important music is to me. Furthermore, the electrical wires attached to the guitar is like how my life is connected to the music. I use the photo of my guitar and cut it to a selection.The dreamy selection of a headless man with a guitar in black and white is symbolizing someone lost in the pursuit of his dream. I used the blur filter to show the blurred look. I used transformation and color change to set shadows to every object that I placed in the photo. I added a flame filter on the guitar strings with the pen tool. Lastly, I changed the hue of the final picture to show a dark surreal world.