To celebrate 100 years of Surrealism, we are delighted to be running a Surrealist Photography Card Design Competition, inspired by the work of Welsh photographer Angus McBean (1914-1990) in the collections of Amgueddfa Cymru and the National Library of Wales.
McBEAN, Angus, Christmas Card © Harvard Theatre Collection
National Library of Wales Collection
How to create images of an absurd world - full of implausible juxtapositions, fantastical settings or dreamlike incongruities – through the apparently ‘truthful’ medium of photography?
This was the challenge which stimulated Surrealist photographers working in the early 20th century to use a range of techniques and processes* to create images that subverted notions of reality in ways provoking and entertaining.
Angus McBean, known for his Surreal photographs of stars of stage and screen, also produced self-portrait Christmas cards to send out to friends and family almost every year from 1933 until 1985. Using a range of sets and techniques, the card designs are highly personal and witty, and show his delight in technical invention.
Celf ar y Cyd invites you to create and enter your own Surrealist photograph that could be used as a greeting card design. This could be a portrait, or self-portrait, like McBean’s work, or it could be a composition with objects. You could create a bizarre and wonderful set, a montage of several photographs, or use framing and techniques to challenge perceptions of reality.
We encourage entries from participants with any level of photography experience and all walks of life. Whether you’re using a smartphone, digital camera, or experimenting with photographic techniques, we are keen to receive images of the Surreal from anyone!
Prizes
First prize (1 entry): a gift card for the National Library of Wales gift shop for the value of £100, a print of your photograph, and a goody bag of photography books.
Runners up (2 entries): A print of your photograph and goody bag of photography books.
All entrants will have the opportunity for their work to be featured on the Celf ar y Cyd website.
Application Process
Please email your photograph to contact@celfarycyd.cymru and include the following:
- A title for your photograph
- Your name and preferred pronouns, home address and contact details.
Deadline
Please submit your entry no later than 5pm on Friday 22nd November. Full Terms and Conditions available below.
If you are thinking of submitting a proposal and have further questions, access requirements or requests, please get in touch with us by emailing contact@celfarycyd.cymru
*More on Surrealist photography techniques
Surrealism was an art movement that began after the First World War. Surrealist painters rejected the rational and depicted absurd, dream-like visions. In photography, artists used a range of processes to distort the reality they photographed into bizarre, imaginative images.
Techniques include:
- Photomontage – combining elements for multiple photographs to make a final image; can be done digitally or by hand collage
- Solarisation - exposing a partially developed photograph to light
- Multiple exposure - combining multiple images, traditionally by exposing the same frame multiple times to combine two or more images in a single negative
- Photograms - achieved without a camera by laying objects on photographic paper and exposing it to light
In his unpublished autobiography Look Back In Angus, McBean writes "I have used almost every known photographic device to bend the intractable medium to my will, and many times it has been multiple exposure". However, with his background in set design and mask-making, much of the Surreal quality of McBean’s photographs comes from the set, props and costumes used.
Taking a closer look at the two examples above, consider:
Where is the photo set? Who is in the photograph? What are they wearing? What is surprising or unusual about the scene? What details have been included to add to the absurd or amusing quality of the photo? How do you think the scenes have been created?
Terms and conditions of entry:
- You must live or be professionally based in the United Kingdom.
- You must be 18 years or over on the day of submission.
- You agree that by submitting your photograph by email you are agreeing to the terms and conditions of entry as specified by the organisers, Celf ar y Cyd.
- You may enter one photograph only.
- Work submitted must be your own, and must be a new or recent work, dated since 14th October 2024.
- Winners will be decided by a panel formed of Celf ar y Cyd editorial staff (curators and staff from National Library of Wales and Amgueddfa Cymru).
- The panel’s decision is final.
- We will not share personal details of any entrants with third parties.
- All winners will be notified accordingly. If any of the chosen winners do not respond within two weeks, an alternative winner will be chosen.
- Prizes subject to availability.
- No cash alternative for any prizes will be offered.
- The winner may be asked to partake in media activity relating to the competition.
- Your completed entry must be received by 5pm Friday 22nd November otherwise the entry will not be processed.
- Celf ar y Cyd, as part of CELF the national contemporary art gallery for Wales, is an institution that supports artists and their original creative outputs. We are not looking for submissions created using artificial intelligence (AI).
To enter:
Please email your entry to contact@celfarycyd.cymru and include the following:
- Your photograph for submission
- A title for your photograph
- Your name and preferred pronouns, home address and contact details.