Authentic Constructions
Photographs straddle a chasm between object and illusion; both in the world as shadows fixed to paper and of the world, an illusionary depiction. When we look at a photograph we are looking both at an object and through it. It is in this chasm where wonder lies, a wonder that has fueled conversations about photography for generations. Frequently these conversations focus on how successful the illusionary depiction was caught, captured or taken in order to seduce the viewer elsewhere.
In the spirit of photo+craft this exhibition invites you into a different conversation; one that considers how photographers instigate, build, gather or dissolve. This shift from taking to making gives the photographer agency and recognizes that photographers are building realities not just capturing them.
This shift in vocabulary is also a shift from honoring the legacy of Fine Art to honoring the legacy of Craft; a legacy that considers process, and does not segregate why a thing was made from how.
