Reality—the making of it is a photobook I made in 2021.
Its 28 pages (8.5” x 8.5”) contain 9 composite compositions, as I call them: digital composite images in which text is embedded to interact with, and as part of, the visual experience.
Its 28 pages (8.5” x 8.5”) contain 9 composite compositions, as I call them: digital composite images in which text is embedded to interact with, and as part of, the visual experience.
Intended for large scale photo prints, the composite compositions became a bit tricky when presented in a book format, I discovered — the legibility of the texts within the images quite compromised.
Legibility is important to me and so I included the texts alongside the images on the each page. I wouldn’t otherwise.
Ultimately, I decided, the printed texts are too distracting from the experience of falling into the worlds presented within the composite compositions.
Immersion is really what I want for the work and for you. And so the book fails as an exhibition space for such works. Sigh.
Nonetheless, I view the book as an artifact of effort and share it in that spirit.
Legibility is important to me and so I included the texts alongside the images on the each page. I wouldn’t otherwise.
Ultimately, I decided, the printed texts are too distracting from the experience of falling into the worlds presented within the composite compositions.
Immersion is really what I want for the work and for you. And so the book fails as an exhibition space for such works. Sigh.
Nonetheless, I view the book as an artifact of effort and share it in that spirit.
This is the introduction:
I’m interested in memory and how it informs our daily lives. Even in some of the most innocuous moments it draws the past into the present. But memory is selective and layered and illusive. It’s porous and protective, its essence asynchronous — releasing itself on its own timeline, on its own terms, often inserting itself unbidden. (Do we even notice it’s there?) And if memory is ever-present, what does that mean now is? Is time sovereign? (Does it matter?) And so, what, exactly, is reality?
Some say the emergence of Photoshop* enables us to now irrefutably point to the unreliability of the photograph as the purveyor of truth or reality. I understand the position. But reality itself is a composite. Probably truth too. Humans certainly are.
Digital photo compositions are a way for me to grow closer to the promise of capturing and conveying reality — exploring what lies under the surface of an experience, and at its borders. Pulling on thoughts and perceptions and memories to explore how these elements coexist and interact within one moment, I think I can get at a more complete representation of what seems to be a single experience through the making of digital composites, and by extension composition compositions.
Reality is a subjective space — it’s a psychological thing, and dialogical. It’s also a somatic thing, and a semiotic one — its interiority shaping its experience and its interpretation.
This is an ongoing and unfinished project. It’s called, Reality — the making of it.
* I made this book, and wrote its introduction, before AI rushed in as it has done now. It almost seems quaint to merely refer to Photoshop as the technology that challenges our notions of reliability, truth, and reality.
Here are some excerpts:
I’m interested in memory and how it informs our daily lives. Even in some of the most innocuous moments it draws the past into the present. But memory is selective and layered and illusive. It’s porous and protective, its essence asynchronous — releasing itself on its own timeline, on its own terms, often inserting itself unbidden. (Do we even notice it’s there?) And if memory is ever-present, what does that mean now is? Is time sovereign? (Does it matter?) And so, what, exactly, is reality?
Some say the emergence of Photoshop* enables us to now irrefutably point to the unreliability of the photograph as the purveyor of truth or reality. I understand the position. But reality itself is a composite. Probably truth too. Humans certainly are.
Digital photo compositions are a way for me to grow closer to the promise of capturing and conveying reality — exploring what lies under the surface of an experience, and at its borders. Pulling on thoughts and perceptions and memories to explore how these elements coexist and interact within one moment, I think I can get at a more complete representation of what seems to be a single experience through the making of digital composites, and by extension composition compositions.
Reality is a subjective space — it’s a psychological thing, and dialogical. It’s also a somatic thing, and a semiotic one — its interiority shaping its experience and its interpretation.
This is an ongoing and unfinished project. It’s called, Reality — the making of it.
* I made this book, and wrote its introduction, before AI rushed in as it has done now. It almost seems quaint to merely refer to Photoshop as the technology that challenges our notions of reliability, truth, and reality.
Here are some excerpts:
