Re-Enchanting Photography

The medium of photography and Surrealism form an unlikely couple. Photography is often regarded as the most ‘realist’ medium one can think of; it registers the world objectively. The movement of Surrealism, in contrast, is known as presenting worlds that do not belong to conventional, common-sense reality. However, Surrealism is not just a historical movement; it concerns a world view. By means of a wide range of experimentations it rethinks what we consider real or reality.

Re-Enchanting Photography explores examples of contemporary photography within the framework of Surrealism. It introduces the photographic work of five contemporary artists that need the framework of Surrealism to better understand and appreciate what their work involves, It presents and analyzes duo’s of contemporary photographers with an earlier Surrealist artist and create dialogues between their work:
• Viviane Sassen and Man Ray
• Paul Kooiker and Hans Bellmer
• Amie Dicke and Meret Oppenheim
• Juul Kraijer and Max Ernst
• Geert Goiris and Giorgio de Chirico.

Ernst van Alphen is professor emeritus of Literary Studies at Leiden University. Before that, he was Queen Beatrix Professor of Dutch Studies at UC Berkeley. His fields of research and expertise are cultural analysis, trauma and affect studies, and gender studies. He is particularly interested in issues that are central in modern and postmodern literature and in the relation between literature and the visual arts. His most recent publications include: Trauma and Affect(Valiz 2026), Seven Logics of Sculpture (Valiz 2023), Productive Archiving (ed. Valiz 2023), Shame! and Masculinity (ed. Valiz 2021), among others.