OMAHA, NEB.- Photography met the twenty-first century in a precarious position—more ubiquitous than at any point in its history, yet also less believable. Every phone is now a camera, and it is estimated that over one trillion images were made in 2018. Yet most of these are understood to be disposable, and when people view images online or in print, more often than not they are presumed to have been manipulated or altered in some fashion. Photography’s veil of believability has been lifted and “clicking the shutter” has never meant less. That said, it is precisely the power that photography once held—the assumption of fact—that has allowed its truths to become so slippery. Where does this leave images that are meant to be more than transitory or ephemeral—pictures intended to convey insight and careful observation? The majority of photographs in this exhibition carry the appearance of transparency and immediacy—of the depiction of a scene that appeared before the lens at an exact moment—but remind us that things are not always what they seem.

Employing a variety of media, from photograms created without a negative to images exposed on film and printed in the darkroom to compositions constructed entirely by computer, the artists in this exhibition subvert our assumptions about their subjects and the manner in which images are created. Photographs made in a single exposure stand side by side with those constructed from hundreds of digital captures, both seeming to present a seamless reflection of reality.

While some photographers still rely on traditional notions of the sublime, others recognize the landscape as arena where history, politics, conflict, and climate change are laid bare. Similarly, artists are employing portraiture in new ways to explore notions of public and private identities. Some have explored the societal norms and expectations that shape our lives, while others seek to reclaim their identity, reshaping how the world sees them and how they choose to face the world. The properties of the photographic medium itself are likewise challenged in elegant cameraless images that reflect the physical world through the direct, hands-on manipulation of the print itself.

Featured photographers include Tina Barney, Julie Blackmon, Joachim Brohm, James Casebere, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Christopher Dawson, John Divola, Lalla Essaydi, Owen Gump, Dan Holdsworth, Ron Jude, Richard Misrach, Richard Mosse, Simon Norfolk, Hanno Otten, Trevor Paglen, Susan Rankaitis, Meghann Riepenhoff, Thomas Ruff, Mark Ruwedel, Larry Sultan, David Taylor and Marcos Ramírez ERRE, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems. Together, they represent an international array of established and emerging artists, some of whom are debuting new work in this exhibition. Exploring still life, portraiture, and landscape, they cleverly upend our expectations in ways subtle and overt to challenge how we understand photography’s new role in describing the shifting world around us.

Fact and Fiction in Contemporary Photography is organized by Joslyn Art Museum.