Stepping Into Our Own: A Senior Surreal Photo by Kaye Yap (2014)

For my surrealism design, I decided to take a HDR photograph of someone stepping into a frame. Within the frame there is a mixture of nature and a cityscape, showing the beauties of the world. Illuminating outside the frame is space, showing the exquisiteness of the beauties beyond earth, adding on to the wonders of our universe. Outside the frame, there is feet about to crush the inside, showing that mankind destroys nature. Around the frame itself, there are human hands holding up the frame. This shows that not only do know we are obliterating the pristine environment, but that we allow ourselves to, even though we know it's bad. The shadows of the feet are outlines in red to show evil, and to clash with the natural shadows of nature. I created these in Adobe photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. I cut out the inside of the frame to bring in the photographs of nature and the cityscape. I also cut out the back to bring in the photo of space. I used illustrator to draw in the absurd looking shadows from the feet and from space.

The meaning behind my design is that humans destroy the natural beauties of our world, and that we allow ourselves to do so. The feet represent us and how we demolish our surroundings. The hands around the frame show how we give ourselves the opportunity to do these evil actions. Evil is represented with the red coming outlining the shadow of the feet. I used a cool color scheme, to show the dreariness and tragic truth of our world today. I wanted to portray a subject that was relatable but was able to execute it in an abstract way. I believe the absurd shadows as well as the space background really pull the design together as a surrealist piece.