Visual Paradox: Truth and Fiction in the Photographic Image (Alternative Image Series) - Softcover

Center, John Michael Kohler Arts

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0932718248 ISBN 13: 9780932718242

Publisher: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1988

Synopsis

The publication VISUAL PARADOX takes a critical look at photography's credibility as a simulacrum or a bona-fide representation of the truth. It challenges our common perception of the photograph as an unassailable representation of reality by presenting the work of contemporary American artists who call attention to the medium's inherently paradoxical nature--its ability to engage in outrageous fictions while preserving a demeanor of objectivity and truth. VISUAL PARADOX leads one through the rebellious early years of staged or directorial photography in the 1960s and into the burgeoning of such activities in the 1970s and 1980s. The publication also features both early and recent examples of conceptual photography, images that question the nature of photographic representation as well as the mechanisms of human perception. Finally, it explores a variety of current postmodern activities that use photography to expose the fictions of mass-media images, to investigate the paradoxical relationship between pictures and language, and to critique the ambiguity and paradoxes of representation itself. The publication features a major essay by Joanne Cubbs, biographical statements on the 28 artists included in the exhibition, and a catalogue of exhibition objects.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Michael Kohler Arts Center
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0932718248
• ISBN 13: 9780932718242
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80