Image via Complex Original
Philadelphia-based artist Tyler Teran wants to trick you. His photographic collages, often black-and-white images dominated by the strong lines of his city's architecture, are dreamlike works that almost seem believable. His ability to make you fall for the spaces he creates in his pieces is uncanny, and it's also what makes them worth looking at.
Teran has been experimenting with different art forms, including digital 35mm photography, collage, painting, and graffiti, for years now. His most established body of work, which he calls the "Forreal" series, are these striking monochrome collages. Even the way he's named them blurs the line between art and reality.
We spoke to the young photographer about a few of his works. From murals on the street to abstract canvases to photographs of Philadelphia, Teran explains the influences and motives behind his pieces. Check out our Portfolio Review: Tyler Teran's Photographic Collages Will Make You Fall for His Imagined Worlds.
Forreal 11
“The 'Forreals' are a family of collages I have been making since 2010. In the beginning I was unaware of the trends occurring in my work, but in 2012 I gave this family a name. Looking back, I can see the same trends in other collages and images of mine. This is Forreal 11, the first of series two in the digital 35mm collages. I took a yearlong break in between the first series and this one. When this finally came out of me, it was the release of a lot of pent up collage-making.”
Forreal 20
“I try to lie in these collages. I’m constantly creating worlds that surprise me as they come together. I find myself in these new worlds with familiar pictures and then have to manipulate them pretty heavily to make them work. Imagine cutting out your best friend from the middle of the universe. That’s something that provides a new perspective, which this work does in many other ways, too. I play with vanishing points, symmetry, reflection, and new perspectives, literal and figurative. This is a believable landscape, though it is inconsistent and problematic.”
Forreal 8
“I shot this after Hurricane Sandy. I shot the detail on the interior, which blew out the skies. The organic black-and-white elements of this photo operate as non-photographic design elements. Here, the photos are not exactly capturing reality. In person, you would be able to see out of this window.”
Forreal 18
“The limits of a camera have become food for thought in this context. I’ve had frustrations with cameras for so long because of their limitations. I spent so much time staring at bad pictures wondering what about them was good. Cameras have been a lesson in compromise, since I could rarely have a rich, vibrant sky and detail-laden architecture in the same photo. With a collage, I can have my cake and eat it too, but I still choose to embrace the flaws of the camera.”
Forreal Collage 1
“The Transformers vibe is one that I cannot escape. It is an undeniable aesthetic I share in my work, and while I’m at it, I’d also like to commend Inception on its visuals. This is actually the newest work in the series. This piece is like Kanye on auto-tune, but analog. I hate to love it, but I really do. It is a hand-crafted magazine piece using full-page spreads from an architectural magazine.”
Pre-Forreal
“Physically manipulating images and my photography through collage has allowed me to see space differently. This has blown my whole world, and my art, wide open. Some elements, people will pick as complete truths, because, like in a dream, we can ignore inconsistencies. Instead of tearing the lie apart, we succumb to those shreds that feel the most real and attractive without paying attention to the telltale signs of a dream.”
Be Here Now
“In 2014, I can see all the work I've created since starting on this path. Each style makes a comeback and takes from the others. This is from this year. I went from handcrafted to digital to a painting method, then back to handcrafted, adding hand-painted elements and photographs in the mix. Collages are ever changing. This one tells us be here now, so let’s try.”
Forreal 13
“Murray Dessner has been an important figure through my artistic development. More than once, he said that after finishing a certain style of painting, the next one he worked on would have to be something completely different. For example, working successively in two vastly different styles, such as employing hard edges, then working with a type of pour, attacks complacency and allows artists to express themselves in different languages. For me, I like to go from black-and-white photography to super vibrant paintings or from painting in monochrome to colorful collages.”
Forreal 10
“I came to my current understanding of art by studying my idols and their works. The most influential people to me (besides Murray) are Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Ray Metzker, and M.C. Escher. I also stand on the traditions of pioneering collage makers, photographers, and graffiti artists.”
Swamp
“I love the possibilities of complete creative freedom. When I have paint and a surface, I move towards the abstract. In this piece, spray paint, acrylic, and pastel might as well be oil and water. While the media appear to mix and mingle, even interact, it is their characteristic distance which creates the space where the conversation takes place.”
London Mural
“I worked at the restaurant where I painted this and also had some of my most formative times in the restaurant owner’s house next door. This mural space was mine for three years before I put paint to the wall. One day I walked out of a Fernand Leger exhibition, and the painting was done. All I had to do was hunker down for a snowstorm until the snow melted so that I could let everyone else see it.”
Forreal 1
“Clean visuals, abrupt transitions: it is simple, and it works. This is not dynamic, and there are few perspectives. It is quiet and comparatively comfortable. To me, it is iconic, and it is Philly. It is home. I didn’t know anything about overworking a collage at the time. This is the first digital ‘Forreal.’”
Original Forreal
“Colors appear out of the edges of my imagination. Color is a physical object to me. This is the Original Forreal collage. I’m pretty sure I came up with the name ‘Forreal’ while making this. This is when I began mastering handcrafted collage styles using magazines, blades, and adhesive.”