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Surrealism in Photography: ParkeHarrison

Robert ParkeHarrison (1968 -- ), along with his wife Shana ParkeHarrison, are recognized for their work in the field of fine art photography.

The keys to understanding ParkeHarrison's work

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The Parke-Harrison couple produces works that connect humans, technology, and nature. These works present an ambiguous narrative that offers insight into the dilemma posed by the failed promise of science and technology to solve our problems, provide explanations, and comfort us in our human condition. They compose strange scenes of conflicting forces, disparate elements, and overabundance, illustrating a nature disrupted by technology and the human hand.

Photographers and artists Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison create a strange world in which a character tries to repair a damaged piece of land using consistently inadequate tools that make the task impossible.

They tell stories of loss, human struggle, and personal exploration in landscapes marked by imaginary technologies. They bridge metaphorical and poetic inspiration, depicting laborious actions, idiosyncratic activities, and strangely crude machines. The authors seek to bring us closer to our modern experience.

Robert ParkeHarrison is often the main character in his photographs, costumed and interacting with specific scenes, objects, and landscapes.

Production

To create these images, they make several large-format paper prints of portions of the final scene, sometimes creating the sets from scratch. They are then cut and assembled, with painted joints, before being rephotographed.

Rich composition and surreal imagery merge to reveal the work's poetic roots. The use of color is intentional yet abstract. Proportions and space are compositional rather than natural. Movement is blurred. Objects and figures are juxtaposed as if by chance in a visual improvisation that connects to complex choreography. Both formally striking and immensely charged with sensation, this work seeks to produce a powerful impact, both visual and visceral.

Publications

The book "The Architect's Brother" published in 2000 was chosen by the New York Times as one of the "ten best photographic books of the year."

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The photographer's website consists of several categories of images:

Acts without Words

Precipice 2016

Bodies of work

  • Gauthier's Dream

  • Counterpoint

  • Sculptures

  • Grey Dawn

Architect's Brother

  • Early Works

  • Industrial scapes

  • Promised land

  • Earth Elegies

  • Kingdom

  • Passage

  • Sentinels

  • Burn Season

  • Procession

These Days of Maiuma

References

Surreal Scenes Make Big Environmental Statements 2011

Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison: Precipice 2016

Environmental Metaphors – Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison 2012

Montreal, Photo Month 2005

Selection of young conceptual art photographers and their portfolios

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