curated theme
STAGED PHOTOGRAPHY II
STAGED PHOTOGRAPHY II
In an era where reality is endlessly edited, filtered, and performed, staged photography pushes even further — constructing worlds that feel more vivid, more precise, and at times more believable than life itself. These images don’t just document; they manufacture experience. Rooted in the idea of hyperreality - a term coined by Jean Baudrillard, artists create fictions so finely detailed they rival — and often replace — the real.
In this issue, we explore how these constructed realities seduce and unsettle us.
In this issue, we explore how these constructed realities seduce and unsettle us.
Andreas Gursky, Les Mées (2016)
Image Courtesy: Sprüth Magers
When images feel truer than truth itself, can we still trust what we see? Or have we already lost the ability - or the will - to tell the difference?
How does hyperreality alter the way we remember, dream, or even imagine?
01: Study
Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993
Transparency in lightbox
229 x 377 cm | 90 3/16 x 148 7/16 in.
Image Courtesy: White Cube
Compositing
Since the early days of photography, artists have sought to push beyond the camera’s documentary function and explore the medium’s capacity for invention. In the 19th century, photographers like Oscar Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson created composite prints by layering multiple negatives to build theatrical, often allegorical scenes. What began as analog ingenuity has evolved—through the rise of digital tools—into a complex visual language that blurs the line between fact and fiction.
In the realm of staged photography, composition transcends mere arrangement—it becomes a deliberate act of constructing reality. Stephen Shore once remarked, "A photographer solves a picture more than composes one," emphasizing the problem-solving nature of framing and structure . This perspective aligns with the Rule of Thirds, a compositional guideline that divides the frame into nine equal parts, positioning key elements along these lines or their intersections to create balance and visual interest.
In this section, we delve into the compositional strategies that underpin hyperreal imagery, exploring how deliberate framing and structure invite viewers into meticulously constructed worlds.
In this section, we delve into the compositional strategies that underpin hyperreal imagery, exploring how deliberate framing and structure invite viewers into meticulously constructed worlds.
Jeff Wall – Untitled, production photo, A Sudden Gust of Wind, Richmond, B.C., Winter 1993
Part of her Lady Stardust series, this work features a young woman adorned in distinctive attire, set against a meticulously crafted backdrop. Belin's approach involves a seamless fusion of the living body with inanimate elements, creating a hyperreal image that challenges viewers' perceptions. The series draws inspiration from various sources, including fashion, mythology, and popular culture, resulting in photographs that are both visually captivating and conceptually rich. (IRK Magazine)
Karen Knorr, Corridor, Musée Carnavalet, 2007, Fables 2003–2022
- Karen Knorr, Explores Migrating Fables and Animals in Her Photography, Stir World, 2021
Noèmie Goudal, Les Amants (Cascade), 2009 Image courtesy: Saatchi Gallery
02. Listen
We revisit an old episode of A Brush With... by The Art Newspaper, featuring Stan Douglas, the multidisciplinary Canadian artist. Douglas shares his early fascination with Marcel Duchamp, reflects on the lasting influence of artists as varied as Francisco de Goya and Agnes Martin, and speaks about his enduring obsession with Samuel Beckett. He also reveals how Miles Davis’s underrated album On the Corner inspired one of his most acclaimed works, Luanda-Kinshasa (2013).
I had to shoot almost every person indivisually, but still trying to keep a sense of what they were doing as a crowd. So I just shoot them in layers, like first the nearest person, then go back further and further and direct them as I went.
Stan Douglas spoke about the making of Penn Station
Stan Douglas, 20 june 1930, 20 june 1944, and 20 june 1957 from ‘penn station’s half century’, 2020
ceramic ink on glass | one of nine photographic panels from ‘penn station’s half century’
image courtesy of the artist, Victoria Miro and David Zwirner
Photo by Nicholas Knight, courtesy empire state development and public art fund, NY
03. Read
The sun never knew how wonderful it was,” the architect Louis Kahn said, “until it fell on the wall of a building.
If light is scarce, then light is scarce; they immerse themselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.
- Junichirō Tanizaki, ¨In Praise of Shadows¨
If light is scarce, then light is scarce; they immerse themselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty.
- Junichirō Tanizaki, ¨In Praise of Shadows¨
Junichirō Tanizaki photographed by Shigeru Tamura
04: Photobooks
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman Anti-Fashion is the first to focus on this close engagement with fashion and approaches her photographic oeuvre from a new perspective. In so doing, it sheds light on the interplay between art and fashion.
Julie Blackmon
Blackmon constructs a captivating, fictitious world that is both playful and menacing. “I think of myself as a visual artist working in the medium of photography," Blackmon notes, "and my assignment is to chart the fever dreams of American life.”
05. From the Community
We met Nhu Xuan Hua in Paris and were struck by how immersed she was in every detail of her process—from props and sets to the conceptual groundwork behind each shoot. In her project Tropism, published by Area Books, Hua blends digital manipulation with instinctive image-making to revisit and transform family photographs. What begins as a personal inquiry into memory expands into a broader reflection on the Vietnamese diaspora, linking the intimate with the political, and addressing how history continues to shape identity and representation. Her return to Vietnam in 2016 marked the start of this ongoing process of reconnection.
It’s an invitation for a treasure hunt on paper
Images mapping a route connecting past and present
The contour of a familiar crowd
is stating a country
Merging places and people.
He, She, They, Here and There become one
after having been set apart for so long.
They have been sent to wait until it comes.
- From the introductory poem in Tropism by Nhu Xuan Hua (Area Books, 2023).
Images mapping a route connecting past and present
The contour of a familiar crowd
is stating a country
Merging places and people.
He, She, They, Here and There become one
after having been set apart for so long.
They have been sent to wait until it comes.
- From the introductory poem in Tropism by Nhu Xuan Hua (Area Books, 2023).