Baby Face: A Senior Surreal Photo by Matthew Ford (2014)

I started with a High-Dynamic Range photo of a super-realistic doll face. High-Dynamic Range captures both the darkest darks and the brightest brights of each photo, usually a set of three that is combined together. The doll face was my focal point, I then put deer antlers onto the dolls head. Then out of the antlers, I had spaghetti coming out of all the points on the horns. The spaghetti then falls onto two plates of two abstracts characters having dinner. The background is the texture of a dark and cloudy stormy night. That is the lowest layer in the program so that all other things go over the top of it.

The baby being the focal point represents a young spirit and being youthful at heart. Antlers start to grow on deer when they become mature, almost a way to show a coming of age, so I put the antlers on to show that even though I am physically and mentally maturing I am still youthful in spirit. The pasta is a representation of something that has always been my favorite food and comforted me, so I had something insecure about myself transform into something that comforted me. I then had odd creatures with pasta on their plates simply so it would continue the surrealist element of the piece. The background is just to show a state of turbulence surrounding the entire piece, it represents the pressure and constantly changing outside world.