I found this image by Jerry Uelsmann while researching surrealism photographers. There are many key features that suggests that this is a surrealistic photograph. Firstly, the main theme and subject include a female in the nude which is very typical of surrealism. Secondly, the image is not natural and has been manipulated using multiple negatives in the dark room creating a very extraordinary theme within the photograph. I know it has not been processed in photoshop because digital photography was not discovered when the image was published. Black and white photographs are also very common in surrealism as well as photomontages as they create something we would never see. Black and white photography suits surrealism because we ourselves don't see objects in black and white unless it has been captured onto a image. So, straight away we are looking at something in a way we have never seen it before simply because there is no colour.
The actual shot itself is well composed and leads the eye down from the woman into the mountains in the background. The black ground around the subject creates a high contrast against the pale model and there is a great tonal range throughout the photograph. A large depth of field has been used in order to keep the image sharp in the foreground and background.
Jerry Uelsmann
Untitled [reclining nude woman, river waterfall and Yosemite landscape], 1992 source: http://leclownlyrique.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/faire-corps-avec-le-paysage/
