The Surrealist Train: A Senior Surreal Photo by Paul Pierantozzi (2015)

The idea behind this image came from one of my favorite films, Inception. In the dream sequence of this film there is a scene where a train runs down a new york street without any tracks. This train really represents the absurdity of the dream world and so I used this as inspiration for my surrealist piece because surrealism is largely based on dreams. Instead of using a real train I used an HDR image of a miniature train and sized it up in photoshop to make it appear as if it was running down the full sized road. In photoshop I had to mimic the depth of field that the picture of the miniature had. The final touch to create a dream-like image was the addition of the brick texture on the train. The brick texture was to make the train less familiar and more dream-like.

The narrative behind the piece is about growing up. The road represents how life is always moving forward. The train represents a child that has grown up too fast. A model train the size of a giant one. Another narrative I like to think of when I see this piece is that the train was running late so it took a shortcut through a residential street.