One cannot escape the influence of Maya Deren while talking about surrealism in film. Indeed, one of her most iconic works, “Meshes of the Afternoon” is taught at almost all art schools. We decided to share the link to the work preserved on one of our favorite resources: Internet Archive.
We want to draw a visual analogy here between “Meshes of the Afternoon” and the work of Hannah Maynard. Maynard (1834-1918) was one of the first surrealist photographers, who started experimenting with new photographic techniques available during that time, having a lot of fun with photomontage and multiple exposure. In addition to being an artist, she was also a business woman, running a photo studio with her husband Richard, and was briefly employed as a professional photographer by the Victoria Police Department. She was born in England, and lived, as you guessed, in Canada. Unfortunately, Hannah Maynard’s practice and influence are not quite researched yet. We will leave it to academics, and surrender to enjoying the works, drawing analogies without being afraid to raise an academic brow, and learning about the life and art of these two outstanding women.
