by writers and artists led to various forms of expres-
sion, including the writing of automatic poetry, the
creation of poetic objects, and the development of
automatic techniques, such as Max Ernst’s use of
frottage(the lines created by rubbing graphite on
paper placed on a textured surface). In painting and
sculpture Surrealism took three forms: abstract, bio-
morphic surrealism in which shapes are placed in a
barely recognizable setting, as in the work of Joan
Miro ́and Yves Tanguy; a hallucinatory realism in
which clearly recognizable forms are presented in
dreamlike, fantastic manners, as in the work of
Salvador Dalı ́and Rene ́Magritte; and the creation
of surrealist constructions and assemblages known
as poetic objects, in which unexpected juxtaposi-
tions of unrelated objects suggest a reality different
from that of the logical world, as in the construc-
tions of Man Ray.
The term ‘‘surrealism’’ was first used in the con-
text of avant-garde artistic expression in 1917 by
the poet Guillaume Apollinaire to describe the bal-
letParade(by Erik Satie, Jean Cocteau, and Pablo
Picasso) and his own play,Les Mamelles de Tire ́-
sias. It received wider currency when Andre ́Breton
appropriated the term to identify the experiments
of the poets grouped around him who moved away
from the anarchism of Dada to propose an alter-
native in surrealism. In 1924 Breton defined surre-
alism in hisFirst Surrealist Manifesto:
SURREALISM, n. masc. Pure psychic automatism, by
which it is intended to express, verbally, in writing, or
by other means, the real process of thought. Thought’s
dictation, in the absence of all control exercised by
reason and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupa-
tions. ENCYCL.Philos. Surrealism rests in the belief in
the superior reality of certain forms of association
neglected heretofore; in the omnipotence of the dream
and in the disinterested play of thought. It tends defi-
nitely to do away with all other psychic mechanisms and
to substitute itself for them in the solution of the princi-
pal problems of life.
Photography played an important role in surreal-
ism. Although the mechanical processes and specific
steps necessary to produce a photograph precluded
the ‘‘pure psychic automatism’’ that Breton admired
in automatic writing and unpremeditated painting,
photographs were central to the surrealist enterprise.
Photographs played an essential role as illustrations
in surrealist journals, includingLa Re ́volution Sur-
re ́aliste,Le Surre ́alism au Service de la Re ́volution,
Minotaure,andDocuments. Indeed, the first issue of
La Re ́volution Surre ́alistefeatured on its first page an
unattributed photograph by Man Ray of an
unknown object covered with cloth and wrapped
with string. TitledThe Enigma of Isidore Ducasse,
this photograph pays homage to the late-nineteenth-
century poet Ducasse (also known by hisnom-de-
plume‘‘lecomtedeLautre ́amont’’), who was revered
by surrealists for describing the chance encounter of
an umbrella and a sewing machine on a dissecting
table. Similar chance encounters appear in other
photographs reproduced inLa Re ́volution Surre ́a-
liste: hands appearing mysteriously on the back of
an armchair, a four-breasted torso, a mannequin
walking up a flight of stairs.
In addition to the photographed chance encoun-
ter, photographs illustrating the streets of Paris also
appeared in the context of Surrealism. Drawing on
the example of Euge`ne Atget, whose work was
admired by Surrealists even though Atget did not
share their aesthetic premises, Surrealists such as
Man Ray, Raoul Ubac, and Jacques-Andre ́Boiffard
placed the sidewalk in the terrain of the dream. In
the Surrealist manifesto of 1924, Breton announced
that the writer must no longer engage in lengthy
description. Breton did so in his own writing by
substituting photographs for words. He chose
photographs by Boiffard for his autobiographic
novelNadja(1928) that at first seem nondescript,
even boring: a statue in a plaza, the fac ̧ade of a
bookstore, a sign above a door. The photographs,
however, recreate the experience of wandering, as
Breton does in the novel, through the streets of
Paris in search of something extraordinary. Inter-
spersed with Boiffard’s photographs are nineteenth-
century postcards and view photographs, in keeping
with the Surrealist delight in found images that func-
tion in ways that contradict their original intent.
Time, or rather the sense of timelessness, is a
crucial element in Surrealist photographs. Often the
uncanny feeling of a world outside of time is created
through the choice of surrogates: statues take the
place of real people, shadows of branches are simu-
lacra for trees, lamplight casts selective rays in place
of broad sunshine. A case in point is Man Ray’s
PlacedelaConcorde, c. 1926, which shows a
worm’s-eye view of Antoine Coysevox’s equestrian
statue of Mercury with his caduceus, lit from behind
and juxtaposed with a brilliantly lit Egyptian obelisk
to the left. Car lights form abstract shapes on the
right. Instead of a typical view of a famous place,
Man Ray exploits an unusual viewpoint and odd
light effects to create a mysterious, timeless urban
scene. As Salvador Dalı ́proclaimed with his infa-
mous soft watches, time itself is suspended in the
irrational world of the Surrealists. This is true in
Surrealist photography as well, where images reject
decisive moments in favor of timeless dreams.SURREALISM