The Real and the Imagined: Selections from the Photography Collection

Photography is a deceptive medium. It has the ability to capture fleeting, candid moments with a supposed accuracy and precision that we take for granted. Photographs may also be infinitely manipulated, however, and have the potential to present imagery that is suspect in its veracity or utterly fantastical in nature. The Real and the Imagined is a selection of 23 photographs from the Nasher Museum’s collection spanning a century-and-a-half and illustrating some of the ways in which photographers have documented, altered or completely invented their imagery. Some of the works included here have been photographers or staged, while others are entirely unaltered. When seen together as a group, it becomes clear that it can often be difficult to distinguish between the real and the imagined image.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.