Surrogate Reality

​

When looking at photographs, we trust that what we see is revealing a certain truth.  Although this is becoming less true with the proliferation of computer-aided photography, for traditional “straight photographs” this rule generally still applies. 

Because it is necessary to possess physical reality, photographers, as opposed to artists in other mediums, can’t conjure up images from memory or imagination. This concept has fascinated and confounded me since making my first photographs.  These pictures were inspired by and explore the limits of that concept.  For instance, in a photograph, is a photocopy of an object perceived as a surrogate for the “real” object or is it perceived as the object itself?  What is the difference between a photocopy of an object, the real object or a drawing of an object when photographed?  Can they be an alternative to memory or imagination?

These images are renderings of questions about the nature of pictures, and how photographs, through trust, reality, representation and reproduction are perceived. 

​