Authenticity

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The Real/Fake Reality

HOW OFFERINGS BECOME AUTHENTIC

REAL OR UNREAL?” THAT WAS THE OVER ARCH ING QUESTION posited of the exhibit, “Staging Reality: Photography from the West Collection at SEI” at SEI Investments in Oaks, Pennsylvania. A sign at the entrance described the two trends of the 2002 exhibition: “artistmade models photographed to appear as natural, and straight photographs that give an artificial feeling to settings they represent.” Lois Renner’s Fur Metropolis (1999), for example, looked real but was “a detailed replica of his own studio in Vienna.” Conversely, Spessi’s Starmyru (2000) captured two gasoline pumps in a field in front of a mountain. No road, no tracks, no signs, not even a gas station—seemingly the product of photo-shopping—yet ...