The photographers in Reality Scenery belong to a generation that has internalized the illusion of photographic documentation and is aware of the medium’s power to recreate an abundance of realistic, everyday details while also enhancing a carefully cultivated reality. The reality represented in these works is “illusionistic scenery”: It operates under a seemingly-ideal image and follows a specific political, social or economic agenda.
The Photography Department at Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem, 2019
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The exhibiting photographers belong to a generation that has internalized the illusion of photographic documentation and is aware of the medium’s power to recreate an abundance of realistic, everyday details while also enhancing a carefully cultivated reality. The reality represented in these works is “illusionistic scenery”: It operates under a seemingly-ideal image and follows a specific political, social or economic agenda.
Born into an age that has already accepted the loss of differentiation between reality and its representation, these young photographers make calculated and critical use of photography’s nature as a simulacra. They offer a direct (or seemingly direct) documentary-like look at the information-laden reality around them.
The photographic arena in these works is a personal one, selectively affected by the stream of images available across social and traditional media. At the same time, these young photographers reverse the gaze and their aesthetic to achieve a hyperrealism which emphasizes the ornamental and highlights the lack of distinction between the real and the virtual.
Each work in this selection is part of a larger, subjective and in-depth project created over time. Nevertheless, there is a common thread that connects all these photographs, and perhaps even a generational quality which speaks to a zeitgeist in modern Israeli reality- one which Etty Schwartz, a lecturer at the department, has identified as “reality scenery”.
Ilanit Konopny and David Adika
Bezalel, Jerusalem 2019
Artists:
Liat Stolero, Zlil Dekalo, Noam Simner, Noya Franco, Reut Alster, Reshef Shahaf, Efrat Jacobovich, May Elimelech, Anna Mushkin, Harel Gilboa, Ariel Hacohen, Yuval Naor, Arkady Spivak, Natalia Krivoshein
Curator:
David Adika, Head of the Photography Department at Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem
