Grand Illusions: Staged Photography

Photographers, like ventriloquists, can cast “voices” in a seemingly infinite number of genres and period styles. This does not negate the camera’s direct relationship to the world—tying image to subject as naturally as a footprint—but instead reveals that photographs are always admixtures of fiction and reality tilted toward one end of the scale or the other. Grand Illusions: Staged Photography from the Met Collection, a survey of 40 photographs spanning the first 170 years of the medium, focuses on the ways in which artists have staged and composed images so that the imaginary is pictured as if it were real. The installation will explore photography’s relationship with other mediums such as literature and film, as well as its persuasive powers when used in advertising. Read more.

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