The artwork, titled “Salvador Dali book signing,” was created by Philippe Halsman in 1963. It belongs to the Surrealism art movement and falls under the genre of photography.
The composition captures a bustling scene within a crowded bookshop. At the center, an individual, presumably Salvador Dali, is engaged in an energetic act of signing books, characterized by a dramatic and animated pose. Surrounding this figure is a mass of onlookers and admirers, all vying for attention and space. The photograph employs a unique fisheye lens, which distorts the scene into a circular shape, yielding an intense and immersive visual effect. This perspective magnifies the chaotic and surreal atmosphere, consistent with the principles of the Surrealism movement, emphasizing the extraordinary and the bizarre in everyday situations.
