Fine art photography is still an incredibly popular topic with Digital Photo Pro‘s readership. In fact, our 2012 profile of master fine art photographer Jerry Uelsmann, which we updated a few years ago with a follow-up interview, remains one of the most trafficked stories on DPP of all time.
Uelsmann pioneered surreal fine art photography with composited images that were way ahead of their time. Today, fine art photographers have taken the baton from Uelsmann, using Photoshop and other types of post-processing magic to create out-of-the-word images that express their own artistic visions.
In this round-up of surreal fine art photographers, we are featuring some of our favorite DPP interviews including our classic profile of Uelsmann, along with stories on the creative team of Ramson & Mitchell, Glen Wexler, Karen Khachaturov, and Kitfox Valentín. Click on the headline or link below the excerpt to read the full photographer profile. You can see our previous round-up of five master portrait photographers here.
Jerry Uelsmann
Jerry Uelsmann is a creative genius, but it takes technical prowess to translate what his mind’s eye sees to a tangible medium. His composite images are all the more impressive with the realization that the surreal visions were created in an analog world. The Detroit-born, Gainesville-based photographer has influenced countless other visual artists through his teaching, exhibitions and books. Read the full interview here.
Ransom & Mitchell
Ransom & Mitchell is a still and motion creative team based in San Francisco featuring the combined talents of director/photographer Jason Mitchell and set designer/digital artist Stacey Ransom. The results of this collaboration are highly detailed and visually lush photographic-based digital art scenarios and portraits for the editorial, advertising and fine-art worlds. Read the full interview here.
Glen Wexler
Glen Wexler’s career is one of utilizing the latest tools while staying true to classic visual traditions. Wexler’s first major successes were in the music world creating fantastically surreal album art. He collaborated with legendary bands including Van Halen, Yes, Black Sabbath and ZZ Top. He found that the recording industry provided a “visual playground” for him to develop his signature style. Read the full interview here.
Karen Khachaturov
Pastel colors reign supreme in Karen Khachaturov‘s dreamy conceptual worlds, and it’s a delight to get lost in the surreal imagery. Her journey to conceptual photography may have started only four years ago, but the 26-year-old photographer from Yerevan, Armenia, seems to have established her own creative style and visual flavor. Read the full interview here.
Kitfox Valentín
Kitfox Valentín wants you to feel uncomfortable, at least for the time you’re contemplating his visual creations. For his exhibition “TOOTHSOME/LOATHSOME,” the Brooklyn-based photographer explores visual juxtapositions such as beauty and grotesqueness, serenity and fear, to provoke viewers to question their initial perceptions. People at times fly through Valentín’s scenarios, but seldom without an underlying sense of unease rather than the freedom normally associated with taking to the sky. Read the full interview here.
