Surreal Dream Photos

Fishbowl heads, flying fish and a box of birds: Photographer turns his surreal dreams into mind-bending and gravity-defying pictures  By Daily Mail Reporter Most people forget their dreams upon waking up in the morning, but Israel photographer Ronen Goldman turns his bedtime fantasies into works of art.  The 32-year-old artist based out of Tel-Aviv specializes in what he calls 'photo-dreams' - conceptually constructed pictures illustrating his various dreams. His most recent project is the six-year series called The Surrealistic Pillow. One of the bizarrely beautiful works depicts a couple sitting on a bench with fishbowls instead of heads and feeding the critters swimming inside. Another arresting image shows a man struggling to protect himself from a barrage of apples pummeling his open umbrella in a twist on a famous painting by Rene Magritte. Still another work in the series features a woman reading a book to a group of small kids in the garden. The only thing is, the lady's head is actually a large glowing light bulb. The 32-year-old photographer told CNN that he shoots all the elements in his photos on location at the same time under the same lighting to achieve the optimal visual effect. He then uses a computer editing program to layer the images and obscure objects from view as needed. That way, a picture of a girl diving into an open bag does not betray the fact that the central figure in the photo is actually being propped up by a person lying on the floor rather than levitating mid-air. According to Goldman, analyzing his dreams to figure out their meaning and his feelings about the dreams takes much longer than photo editing. He shared that one of his favorite images in the series is that of a woman lying in bed with a trio of large iguanas. On his blog, which Goldman often uses the reveal some of his professional tricks and talk about his unique artistic approach, the 32-year-old explained that the image, which represents a fear of relationships, was shot in his bedroom with a single lizard. This week, the artist posted several of his visual concoctions on Reddit, which proved to be big hits with the users of the popular social news forum. Feeding frenzy: Photographer Ronen Goldman was inspired by the notion that he and his fiancee 'feed each other's minds.' She posed with a friend who stood in for Goldman, and then he held a fish bowl over where their heads would have been Urban climbers: Goldman shot this photo in a parking garage. The image required some editing and a discretely positioned step-stool Art imitating art: Goldman staged this shoot in Brussels, Belgium, after visiting the Magritte Museum dedicated to the famous surrealist painter who has been a source of inspiration Ball game: The artist used a portrait lens with a shallow depth of field and composed a mosaic of 22 individual images Creative process: Every photo starts with a dream or a fragment of a dream Goldman remembers, followed by months he spends analyzing his feelings about it to create a real-world image Playful: In a scene straight from a Hitchcock movie, Goldman tells a story of a man who is being carried away by birds that sprang from a cardboard box with a menacing warning Truth behind the image: Although it appears that the girl is floating into a bag on the ground, the image was actually shot with a person lying on the ground and propping her up Reptilian feelings: The photo represents a fear of relationships, as in, 'Is there room in that bed for me?' But during the shoot, held in Goldman's apartment, there was only one lizard on hand Citrus rain: The image shows a man picking a harvest of lemons and limes dropping from the sky like rain Tricks up his sleeve: Goldman and his friend plotted out the spiral of cards, with each man holding four cards at a time, while a third man was at the camera Bedtime story: A strangely beautiful image depicts a woman with a bright light bulb for a head reading a book to children while illuminating her surroundings