Real With The Surreal

“The years lie in wait for you” (1935) by Dora Maar

With Halloween right around the corner and people across the country celebrating with costumes and traditions that blur the lines between life and the afterlife, according to legend, the veil of the two worlds is thinner on All Hallows eve, aka All Saints Day, aka Halloween. While primarily known in the U.S. as a party and horror movie "holiday," its roots stem from a spiritual place that recognized and honored the unknown and unseen as very real. Like anything, the meaning and intention get lost over time as culture changes. But creating life and culture from the inside out has eternally been embedded in cultures worldwide, whether you're aware of it. With that said, let's celebrate the "spooky" season by recognizing the spirit of one of the unknown photography pioneers of the surrealist movement, Dora Maar. She is most famous for being the lover and muse of Picasso, yet she was much more than that; she was not only a talented painter but a brilliant photographer influenced by surrealism and its aesthetics. She would incorporate the hidden mysteries of the mind/unknown into her work and break new ground with how she would integrate it with modern women in advertising/commercial photography. Not much is known of her, and much of her work was discovered after she passed, yet her talent and voice are undeniable.

While she may not have had the recognition and notoriety of the times, her contributions and influence were significant to photography and deserve to be recognized. She felt that "art should represent the content of reality through links with intuitions or ideas." No participation trophies were given to her based off of irrelevant measures. She could stand on her talent alone and hold her own among peers who were titans of that era. It doesn't get any more real or badass than that!!

Dora Maar, Untitled (Hand-Shell), 1934

Model In Swimsuit, Dora Maar 1936

Interpretation of a character from the play Ubu Roi as an armadillo

Untitled (Fashion Photograph), Dora Maar 1936. (* Side Note: Doesn't this photograph remind you of the movie Eraserhead? I wonder if director David Lynch got this photograph idea for the stage scenes. I would bet money that he did.)

The Weeping Woman is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso, which he created in France in 1937. The painting depicts Dora Maar, Picasso's mistress and muse. The Weeping Woman was created at the end of a series of paintings that Picasso produced in response to the bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War and is closely associated with the iconography in his painting Guernica. Picasso was intrigued with the subject of the weeping woman, and revisited the theme numerous times that year.

Dora Maar Playing the Guitar on a Terrace 1926

Self Portrait 1930

Le Simulateur, by Dora Maar 1935

1936 Portrait of Dora Maar

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*Side Note - How fire is the photograph I added to the homepage with the model/actress I photographed outside the studio. No better feeling than when unexpected elements come together in the moment during a shoot. 🔥

Be Great this week! ❤️‍🔥🌙🌊