Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Forgetting our Essence: A Senior Surreal Photo by Monica Hsu (2013)

Moving into our second semester at Freestyle Academy, we were introduced to the idea of surrealism. Surrealist works highlight unexpected juxtapositions and an element of surprise. As we studied the works of famous Surrealist artists, we were encouraged to develop our own pieces of surrealist work through writing and art. This piece represents how the speed of technology and the industry are corrupting the memories of our essence as humans. The broken iphone and fire represent the corruption of technology, while the clovers are representing nature. However, if you look closely into the clover, you will see that they are pixelated and unnatural. This goes to show how our appreciation of nature is slowly deteriorating because of the excitement of our future endeavors of new technology. As a new technique, I used HDR photography on the broken iphone and fire. This is when you merge a number of photos, all with different exposures, into one photo. I did this in Photoshop, and added a filter to accentuate the cracks on the iphone and the warm colors of the fire. HDR photography is a great tool, especially for surrealist work because it makes images larger than life. All in all, I enjoyed the Surrealism unit because I got to explore a part of me that I usually don't pay attention to: my subconscious.
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