All Hung Up: A Senior Surreal Photo by Isabel Owen (2016)

My surrealist photograph is based off of a creepy dream that I had when I was younger. In the dream, time was moving slowly. Everyone was ghost like and almost transparent. Instead of real heads, everyone's head was a hanger. We were all being hung up on clothes lines as if we were hanging ourselves up to dry. The image of a human body with a hanger instead of a head stuck with me, particularly for a surrealist image. I then had the idea of photographing an abandoned building with HDR photography and to place hanger people throughout the building. I wanted to convey a spooky feeling similar to what I experienced in my dream. I wanted to give the impression that these individuals were all ''hung up'' - over each other, over themselves, maybe even over life.

To create this image, I combined three different photographs. My background was an HDR photograph I took while exploring an abandoned warehouse. I compiled the HDR photo in photoshop. Then, I took a photo of a hanger as well as two separate photos of a girl in a dress and a man in a suit. I used the quick selection tool in photoshop to cut out each body and combine it with a hanger onto the background. I also added different adjustment layers to the background to enhance the despair and rust of the abandoned building. I enjoyed experimenting with this project and learning more about surrealism.