Photophys.com: The Science of Photography

My knowledge of art history is limited, but I am a great fan of René Magritte (1898-1967). Magritte is described as a Belgian surrealist artist, though he claimed his work was not surrealism. In any event he was extremely original and far outside the accepted traditions of art. If you are not familiar with Magritte, I suggest that you enter “Rene Magritte images” into your favorite search engine and take a look before you read any farther.

Magritte was interested in the use of photography in art, and he used a camera as an aid in planning his work. However, I think it is fair to say that in the early and mid-twentieth century photography had not advanced to the point where it had become a good tool for creating surrealistic art. All that has changed, and now digital photography permits Magritte inspired art to be created with much greater freedom and ease than was possible for Magritte with his with oils on canvas.

I have experimented with Magritte like images and have had a lot of fun, but my images are certainly not great art. Now on 500px.com I have discovered the work of Patrick Desmet, a surrealist photographer of great talent. He describes his work as montages, and you can see it at his website: http://www.new-art.be/ If you like Magritte, I think you will like Patrick’s work.