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Justin Peters combines photographs of natural and everyday subjects into scenes that look coherent at first glance, then reveal an impossible relationship. His digital photomontages carry a surrealist way of seeing into the present: the images are built with contemporary editing tools, while their dreamlike force comes from making familiar things behave as if the rules of nature had shifted.
What makes a Justin Peters photomontage surreal?
A photomontage brings photographic elements together to form a composite image. In Peters’s work, recognizable subjects—often drawn from nature or ordinary life—appear in unexpected combinations. The resulting scenes can seem photographic and plausible while depicting something that could not happen in the physical world.
That tension between a convincing surface and an impossible conjunction is central to the effect. Peters described his aim in a statement reproduced by the Fine Art Photography Awards for its 2019–2020 competition: to merge photographs in unexpected ways, “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality,” and break nature’s rules to create a new “super-reality.” This is the artist’s account of his series, not a universal definition of surrealism.
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How Peters builds the composite
In a March 14, 2018 interview with Depositphotos, Peters described starting with nature photography, then becoming dissatisfied with ordinary images. He learned to combine photographs through online tutorials and practice. He said he uses both stock photographs and some images he has taken himself, and named Photoshop as his favorite tool in that interview.
For a composite to feel visually unified, he looks for source images whose lighting, shadows, and perspective can be aligned. As he put it, “The most important things for photo manipulations and combining different images is to match light/shadows and perspective, I look for photos or shoot them so that I can blend them together in a realistic way.” The craft is therefore more than cutting out one object and placing it beside another: the photographic elements need to seem to inhabit the same scene.
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The account is specific to Peters’s interview in 2018. It establishes a tool and method he described then, but not his current software, workflow, or source-image practices.
How to look at the images
A useful way to read one of Peters’s composites is to move from its photographic construction to its imaginative effect:
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- Identify the familiar elements. Notice which parts of the scene resemble natural forms or everyday objects.
- Look for visual continuity. Ask whether the light, shadows, scale, and perspective make the elements appear to belong together.
- Notice the break with reality. Find the surprising relationship that would be impossible or unlikely in an ordinary scene.
- Consider the shift in mood or meaning. Once the image’s impossible premise becomes clear, ask how it changes the way you see its familiar parts.
This sequence connects Peters’s stated attention to light, shadows, and perspective with the unexpected juxtapositions that define the work. It is a way to look, not a claim that every image has one fixed interpretation.
Surrealist influences and a contemporary method
Peters told Depositphotos in 2018 that surrealist painters influenced him and helped him see everyday things differently. My Modern Met reported Salvador Dalí, Vladimir Kush, and Rob Gonsalves among the painters he cited as influences, while describing the natural subjects and ordinary objects in his imagery. Those names provide context for his stated interests; they do not establish a direct influence on any particular photomontage.
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Calling Peters’s work a way of “pushing surrealism into the 21st century” is most precise when it refers to method and artistic intention. The awards statement explicitly frames the series as an effort to extend surrealist image-making through Adobe Photoshop and merged photographs. It supports describing this body of work as a contemporary digital continuation of surrealist ideas, not claiming that Peters is the first or sole artist to modernize surrealism, or that his practice represents all contemporary surrealism.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What Peters wants viewers to experience
Peters has described the images as invitations into an imagined world. In a 2018 PetaPixel interview, he said, “I hope that when people experience my work, they discover a new and different world, which they can dive into to prove that everything is possible when you open your mind.” That statement helps explain why the composites preserve enough visual coherence to draw viewers in: the scene offers a point of entry into a world where familiar elements can be rearranged.
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Where to view or buy his work
Profiles and the Fine Art Photography Awards listing provide examples and historical context for Peters’s work, but a reproduction in an article or competition page does not establish that an image is available as a print, licensed, or for sale. No current official shop, authorized print listing, book catalog, or maintained portfolio channel is established by the sources cited here. Check a channel maintained by the artist or an authorized gallery for current viewing and sales information before making a purchase.
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