Photography, Paris And The Genesis Of Surrealism

“Looking out at the madness of modern life in the early 20th century, Surrealism said, ‘Bring it on.’ … There was so much going on. The chaos of traffic and lights and humanity was constantly producing jarring images. Reality seemed to blur into a dream state and then back again. … By grabbing a moment from the flow of experience, [photography] gives it individual meaning. The throbbing life of Paris in the 1920s gets broken down into its bits, its isolated incidents.”