Photorealism

When creating photographs, you begin with the ability to create something photo-realistic with virtually no effort. This reveals an aspect of an underlying challenge in art work and in how we see reality.

Of course technique is important in creating work that has an impact on people, but the real challenge is to make things that share compelling meaning. Why does one photograph matter more than another? It isn’t because it is more realistic. It’s an act of sharing of something you see with others.

In fact what we recognise as photorealistic in artwork isn’t that it shows things how they actually are, instead it shows things with the specific distortion that photographs create. The selectivity of what we decide to show. The effects of a lens. What is in or out of focus. The non-photographed ‘real’ really isn’t like this. It isn’t edited. Things that you don’t want to show are still going to be there and areas that are out of focus to you might be in focus for someone else. You bring your own distorted perception.

The ability to share perception is a powerful tool. It lets us have a broader experience of life and a greater understanding.