Surrealist Photography
SURREALIST STYLE
In the wake of World War I’s ravaging of Europe, artists delved into the unconscious mind to confront and grapple with this reality. Poet and critic André Breton, a leader of the Surrealist movement who authored the 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, called this approach “a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism.” Surrealist art emerged in the 1920s with dreamlike and uncanny imagery guided by a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing, which can be likened to a stream of consciousness, to channel psychological experiences.
Although Surrealism was a groundbreaking approach for European art, its practitioners were inspired by Indigenous art and ancient mysticism for reenvisioning how sculptures, paintings, prints, performance art and more could respond to the unsettled world around them.
Surrealist artists were also informed by the Dada movement, which originated in 1916 Zurich and embraced absurdity over the logic that had propelled modernity into violence. Some of the Surrealists had witnessed this firsthand, such as Max Ernst, who served in the trenches during World War I, and Salvador Dalí, whose otherworldly paintings and other work responded to the dawning civil war in Spain.
Other key artists associated with the revolutionary art and literary movement included Man Ray, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Frida Kahlo and Meret Oppenheim, all of whom had a distinct perspective on reimagining reality and freeing the unconscious mind from the conventions and restrictions of rational thought. Pablo Picasso showed some of his works in “La Peinture Surréaliste” — the first collective exhibition of Surrealist painting — which opened at Paris’s Galerie Pierre in November of 1925. (Although Magritte is best known as one of the visual Surrealist movement’s most talented practitioners, his famous 1943 painting, The Fifth Season, can be interpreted as a formal break from Surrealism.)
The outbreak of World War II led many in the movement to flee Europe for the Americas, further spreading Surrealism abroad. Generations of modern and contemporary artists were subsequently influenced by the richly symbolic and unearthly imagery of Surrealism, from Joseph Cornell to Arshile Gorky.
Find a collection of original Surrealist paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples and more art on 1stDibs.
to
22
408
65
59
72
203
136
133
179
87
58
44
104
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
45,546
16,236
3,366
2,766
1,180
525
474
271
186
134
130
61
42
24
219
122
71
67
60
57
45
38
32
27
25
24
23
22
21
19
18
17
17
16
1
156
317
3
1
7
4
78
18
20
73
61
42
41
30
231
142
124
119
93
Style: Surrealist
End of the World. Begining of the World
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-Fi photography. In the 1980's He did work for the groundbreaking Bob Guccioni magazine Omni.
Signed, dated and number LL recto, 3/15 other size ava...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Marc Lacroix, "Dali with Flowers", original photograph
By Marc Lacroix
Located in Chatsworth, CA
This piece is an original photograph taken by French photographer, Marc Lacroix in 1971. This image depicts Surrealist artist, Salvador Dali, who Lacroix photographed numerous times. There is a large room at the Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain, that is dedicated to Lacroix where his photographs of Dali are on permanent display. This piece is hand signed and numbered 6/15 from the edition of 15 on glossy Kodak photo...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Grey Crowned Cranes
By Cheryl Medow
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 25
Signed and numbered in pencil, and blind stamp on print margin.
Signed, titled, dated and print type in pencil on print verso.
Paper size: 18 x 14.5 in., Image size: 13...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Sci-fi Single Man, Surreal Road to Destiny, Camera 35 Cover - Surrealism -
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered 4/15 recto, unframed, printed later, other sizes available, Printed on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Cover Camera 35 Magazine Aug/Sept 1976
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment, Photographic Paper
Another Door Opens
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Michael DeCamp, American (1928 - 2013)
Title: Another Door Opens
Year: circa 1975
Medium: Color Photograph, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 50
Image Size: 15.5 x 23.5 ...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper
Camel Caravan
Located in Miami, FL
Shipping should be around $100 Signed, dated and numbered lower right recto, 3/15 Unframed, printed later, other sizes available.
Mithcell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-Fi Photography a...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Light Train
Located in Miami, FL
Signed, dated, numbered 3/15 recto unframed, other sizes availab
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Untitled (Paper Globe)
By Chema Madoz
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 25
Gelatin silver print
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil on print verso.
Paper size: 16 x 12 in., Image size: 8 1/2 x 7 1/4 in.
Printed 2011
Chema Madoz is one of the...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Alina Karo "Secret 3" Original Fine Art Photography Edition 1/3
By Alina Karo
Located in Culver City, CA
Secret 3
Aluminum
47” x 40”
Edition 1/3
Comes with COA
VOLLIPSIS series by Alina Karo
The title of the show, Vollipsis, bears a hint of mystery. By merging the meanings of two ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Metal
Man and Universe
Located in Miami, FL
Mitchell Funk is the creator of thi work and a pioneer of Sci-Fi Photography. He did an ad campaign for Omni Magazine in the early 1980's.
Archival Inkj...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Halloween...
By Ryan Schude
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
C Print
Untitled, from the New Mexico Portfolio
By Van Deren Coke
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 125
Signed and dated in ink on print margin.
Photograph is from The New Mexico Portfolio published in 1976 by the Center of the E...
Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Sven Barth
By Ryan Schude
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Photograph, C-Print. Edition of 10 plus 2 AP.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
C Print
Nest
By Ryan Schude
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Edition of 3 plus 2 AP.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
C Print
Rosemary Ellis Windows VIII Silver Gelatin Photograph Print Palm House Hot Warm
Located in London, GB
Rosemary Ellis (1910-1988)
Windows VIII
Original proof photograph for Windows in the Outlooks and Insights series published by Bodley Head, by Rosemary & Charlotte Ellis.
Silver Gela...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
The Saturn
By Ryan Schude
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Edition of 10 plus 2 AP.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
C Print
Cuchillo, Madrid (knife-ruler)
By Chema Madoz
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 15
Signed, dated and numbered.
Chema Madoz is one of the most important contemporary Spanish photographers, who is greatly known for his monochromatic, surreal still-life...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Statue of Liberty Mooning
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed and dated.
Category
20th Century Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Jaguar
By Ryan Schude
Located in Santa Monica, CA
C-print, edition 3/3
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
C Print
Memorial to Anais Nin
By Val Telberg
Located in New York, NY
Val Telberg was a Surrealist-influenced photomontagist who famously collaborated with Anais Nin.
Mr. Telberg was born of Finnish-Russian parents in Moscow...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Treehouse
By Ryan Schude
Located in Santa Monica, CA
Edition of 3 plus 2 AP
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
C Print
New York Skyline from New Jersey
Located in Miami, FL
Dreamy and surreal midtown Manhattan with dramatic clouds bathed in grey blue light,
signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso 3/15, unframed, other size available
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Film
Modern Photography Cover, Surreal Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Historically , newsstand magazines have used a standard set of practices when it came to choosing their cover image. Their goal was to use an image that people could instantly relate to. The idea being, if an image pops off the page it will attract more attention and then generate more newsstand sales. For editors, choosing a cover was first a marketing decision and then an aesthetic one. That is why most magazine covers and (that includes art magazines) pretty much looked the same. They used familiar images, mostly of celebrities, beauty people or news items of that would beckon and aggressively reach out to the prospect. In this Modern Photography Cover of August 1983, they chose a radical departure. They used an image that was the opposite of the norm. Mitchell Funk’s Graphic Surreal Landscape breaks the rules of formula magazine cover art...
Category
1980s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Storm #5
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kenny Morrison is a photographer, director, and cinematographer. He is passionate about making images and storytelling. His work pushes boundaries as he searches for limits to situat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Surreal LandScape Photograph Four Pyramids, Cover Popular Photography Magazin
Located in Miami, FL
Surreal LandScape with Four Pyramids
Cover Popular Photography Magazine, November, 1977
Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of Sci-Fi photography. He did wo...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment
The Essence of Dali
Located in Buffalo, NY
The work offered for sale here is an original vintage silver gelatin print hand created by Halsman hand signed and exhibited at the International Center for Photography.
Philippe Halsman was at one point considered the best photo-portraitist in France. He had an incessant interest in faces: “Every face I see seems to hide—and sometimes fleetingly reveal—the mystery of another human being.” Halsman’s photographs of politicians, celebrities, and intellectuals were featured widely in magazines like LIFE and Vogue. His more famous subjects included the likes of Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, Audrey Hepburn, and Albert Einstein. He also had a 37-year collaboration with Salvador Dalí, which resulted in several famous surrealist series including the “Dalí’s Mustache” portraits...
Category
1950s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Great Egrets in the Bayou
By Cheryl Medow
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 10
Signed and numbered in pencil, and blind stamp on print margin.
Signed, titled, dated and print type in pencil on print verso.
Paper size: 25 x 20 in., Image size: 20 x...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Storm #4
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kenny Morrison is a photographer, director, and cinematographer. He is passionate about making images and storytelling. His work pushes boundaries as he searches for limits to situat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
United Nations with Red Sun
Located in Miami, FL
Double Exposure of Red sun into a the black shape of a silhouetted street signed evokes a surreal image of New York. Signed and dated on lower rig...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Cypress Swamp
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 25
Signed, titled, dated and numbered in pencil on print verso.
Paper size: 17 x 22 in., Image size: 16 x 20 in.
Series: Ghostland
Keith Carter is an American photographe...
Category
1990s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Storm #7
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kenny Morrison is a photographer, director, and cinematographer. He is passionate about making images and storytelling. His work pushes boundaries as he searches for limits to situat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Burn to Shine, limited edition photograph, archival pigment, signed and numbered
By Tom Chambers
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Burn to Shine, limited edition photograph, archival pigment, signed and numbered
From Tom Chambers' series Animal Visions
All my life I have held a fas...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Saddle-Billed Storks
By Cheryl Medow
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition of 10
Signed and numbered in pencil, and blind stamp on print margin
Signed, titled, dated, and print type in pencil on print verso.
Paper size: 21 x 24 in., Image size: 16 x...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Storm #6
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kenny Morrison is a photographer, director, and cinematographer. He is passionate about making images and storytelling. His work pushes boundaries as he searches for limits to situat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Storm #3
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kenny Morrison is a photographer, director, and cinematographer. He is passionate about making images and storytelling. His work pushes boundaries as he searches for limits to situat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Storm #1
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kenny Morrison is a photographer, director, and cinematographer. He is passionate about making images and storytelling. His work pushes boundaries as he searches for limits to situat...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Dali Cyclops
Located in Buffalo, NY
The work offered for sale here is an original vintage silver gelatin print hand created by Halsman and used as the cover proof for the "Dali Mustache Book".
Philippe Halsman was at one point considered the best photo-portraitist in France. He had an incessant interest in faces: “Every face I see seems to hide—and sometimes fleetingly reveal—the mystery of another human being.” Halsman’s photographs of politicians, celebrities, and intellectuals were featured widely in magazines like LIFE and Vogue. His more famous subjects included the likes of Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, Audrey Hepburn, and Albert Einstein. He also had a 37-year collaboration with Salvador Dalí, which resulted in several famous surrealist series including the “Dalí’s Mustache” portraits...
Category
1950s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Untitled (Moon in Gong)
By Chema Madoz
Located in Dallas, TX
Edition 2/7
Signed on print margin.
Printed 2011
Frame included.
Chema Madoz is one of the most important contemporary Spanish photographers, who is greatly known for his monochroma...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Miss Friday
Located in Wiscasset, ME
Much of Keith Hamilton's work is a comment on human perception: how our mind tries to recognize patterns and make sense of a complex world. Because context greatly influences how we ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Pigment
Red Sun. Green Skyline, Nikon Advertising Campaign
Located in Miami, FL
Red Sun. Green Skyline, Nikon Advertising Campaign
Inkjet Archival Print
Signature: Signed dated ,numbered lower right recto. Printed Later, Unframed 2/15, other sizes available - Pr...
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Surreal Blue Landscape
Located in Miami, FL
Cover Popular Photography, May 1978, Signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, 2/15 Printed later, other size available, unframed
Category
1970s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
"Aerial 3" Photography 24" x 24" inch Edition of 15 by Olha Stepanian
Located in Culver City, CA
"Aerial 3" Photography 24" x 24" inch Edition of 15 by Olha Stepanian
Printed on Epson Professional Paper
Signed and numbered by the artist
Not framed. Ships in a tube.
Availabl...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Man Playing his Favorite Instrument
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed and dated.
Category
1950s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
"Moon Birth" Photography 31" x 31" in Edition 3/7 by Olha Stepanian
Located in Culver City, CA
"Moon Birth" Photography 31" x 31" in Edition 3/7 by Olha Stepanian
Printed on Epson Professional Paper
Signed and numbered by the artist
Not framed. Ships in a tube.
Available ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
A Watercolor and Toned Cyanotype Photographic Print, "Harmony"
Located in San Diego, CA
A one of a kind 24" x 30" Watercolor and Toned Cyanotype on Cotton Sateen mounted on Wooden Panel. A certificate of authenticity will be provided upon its purchase or delivery.
Neil...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper
Seraphim
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram, Archival P...
Bliss
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Migration
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Field of Sorrow
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Photographic Paper, Photogram, Plexiglass, Photographic Film
Fading Beauty
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Portraits of Dignity
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Awakening
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Within
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
Early 2000s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Porcelain Dynasty
By Drew Tal
Located in New York, NY
With his works included in the permanent collection at the Norton and the New Britain Museum, Drew Tal’s successful career has been nothing but a soaring ascension into the global ar...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Plexiglass, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Photogram
Bud of the Bud
By Reka Nyari
Located in New York, NY
“Ink Stories”, which was introduced at Nyari’s very first solo gallery exhibit, consists of large-scale nude photographs that explore the concept of self-identity and female empowerment. The series joins six women together, each who have faced adversity, to demonstrate the creation of a strengthened self-image through tattoos. By highlighting the intricate woven threads of ink on each woman’s skin, Nyari proposes the idea that self-empowerment and reconciliation with one’s traumas can be linked to the act of greeting one’s “own skin” or inventing their own story.
Nyari has now elevated these intimate photographs in her new Punctured Ink series through the process of puncturing botanical-like references into the surface of each image (thus making each one of a kind). Her inspiration to physically puncture the previously pristine photographic prints stemmed from a childhood memory that occurred while she was living in Finland: “I remembered my parents had this big pad of paper next to the home phone...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Photogram, Archival Pigment, Archiva...
Ripple Effect ll
By Paul Dempsey
Located in East Hampton, NY
Ripple Effect II
Year: 2018
Medium: Photography (printed on metal)
Size: 30" x 20" (larger sizes available - inquire within)
16x24 on metal - $650
20x30 on metal - $900
Made to Order
Water Ripple Effect
About the Artist: A computer programmer and Webmaster by trade, Paul describes himself as a fine art photographer and a “digital manipulator.” His keen vision captures ordinary details from daily life and transforms them into images of beauty and wit, filled with contrasting shapes and effects.
Paul’s current series of abstract work focuses on macro images of nature combined with additional exposures of ice, snow, sand, and sky. These futuristic scenes, inspired by the writings of Kurt Vonnegut...
Category
2010s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Metal
Can O' Nudes
Located in Dallas, TX
Signed and dated in black ink on print margin by Alfred Gescheidt
Gelatin silver print, 11 x 9 in.
Category
20th Century Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Portrait of Roger Parry
By Maurice Tabard
Located in New York, NY
Stamped, verso
Vintage silver print
9 x 7 inches
18 x 15.5 inches, framed
Roger Parry learned photography from Maurice Tabard by working as his studio assistant in 1928. In 1929 the...
Category
1930s Surrealist Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Surrealist photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Surrealist photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add photography created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, red, orange, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Mitchell Funk, Rosemary Ellis, Brian Ziff, and FPA Francis Pavy Artist. Frequently made by artists working with Paper, and Photographic Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Surrealist photography, so small editions measuring 4.5 inches across are also available. Prices for photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $110 and tops out at $28,800, while the average work sells for $1,750.