Making it Real

Curated by Vik Muniz

Making It Real examines recent photographs that deliberately expose the artifice of their fabricated, set-up, and arranged subjects. The artist photographers in Making It Real treat the notion of photographic "truth" with skepticism but unlike postmodern photographers who consciously negate the principles of straight photography, the artists in Making It Real instead challenge these principles without ever really stepping outside their boundaries. Their subjects are examined directly and presented free of darkroom manipulations; they attempt to record things that exist in the world of situations, events, and objects. By making simulated reality their subject and deliberately exposing their setups, the artists produce photographs that are both deceptive and precise descriptions of reality. In this manner, they mock, and at the same time make operable, traditional claims of the photograph to truth, objectivity, and realism while questioning the validity of traditional dichotomies such as true and false, fact and fiction.

Touring locations

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art

Jan 19, 1997 – Apr 20, 1997

Ridgefield, CT, USA

The Reykjavik Municipal Art Museum

Oct 18, 1997 – Nov 23, 1997

Reykjavik, Iceland

Portland Museum of Art

Jan 22, 1998 – Mar 22, 1998

Portland, ME, USA

Bayly Art Museum

Sep 18, 1998 – Nov 15, 1998

Charlottesville, VA, USA

Curators

Vik Muniz

Artists

Zeke Berman, James Casebere, Catherine Chalmers, Gregory Crewdson, Thomas Demand, Fischli & Weiss, Joan Fontcuberta, Charles Griffin, Peter Garfield, Marti Lorens, Jan Henle, Teun Hocks, Mike Kelley, Wilmar Koenig,

David Levinthal, Paul McCarthy, Abelardo Morell, Warren Neidich, Jorge Ribalta, Collier Schorr, Kenneth H Schorr, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Sandy Skoglund, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Bernard Viota, Boyd Webb

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