Yusuf Ozkizil (a.k.a. Chutney Bannister): The Surreal Line

I realized recently that FILE magazine has a feed for its projects (and for its single shots, too, but the projects are what interest me most). I used to check out FILE periodically, but sometimes months would go by between my visits, and I didn’t want to miss any more of the work that FILE publishes. Boy, am I glad, because the project that showed up in my Google Reader today is one I love. It’s The Surreal Line, a project by Yusuf Ozkizil (who goes by the pseudonym Chutney Bannister on Flickr):

The Surreal Line is a series of images taken from an ongoing project, documenting moments of chance on the London Underground where static billboards and posters coalesce with the world around them.

I’m interested in how these advertisements, specifically designed for delivering one message, can have that story completely hijacked—often by the mere framing of a window—creating an entirely new context. Commuters, who are somewhat static, withdrawn, and locked in their own private routines, are oblivious to these momentary collisions. I’m fascinated by these chance encounters, and, needless to say, I gave up reading on the Tube after my first trip on the surreal line.

Here are some of my favorite examples from the project. Click here to see the whole slide show.

Copyright © Yusuf Ozkizil

Copyright © Yusuf Ozkizil

Copyright © Yusuf Ozkizil

Copyright © Yusuf Ozkizil

Copyright © Yusuf Ozkizil

Copyright © Yusuf Ozkizil

P.S. This is why not banning photography on public transit is so important.

P.P.S. This is how to use advertising photographs, change them up, make them your own, and call them, justifiably, art. Can you tell how I feel about Richard Prince’s appropriation work?