David Bate examines automatism and the photographic image, the Surrealist passion for insanity, ambivalent use of Orientalism, use of Sadean philosophy and the effect of fascism of the Surrealists. The book is illustrated wtih a wide range of surrealist photographs.
What is a Surrealist photograph?; the automatic image; sadness and sanity; the oriental signifier; the Sadean eye; black object, white subject; the truth of the colonies; fascism and exile.
David Bate is Course Leader in MA Photographic Studies & Senior Lecturer in Photography Theory, University of Westminster, London.