Analog Forever Magazine is pleased to showcase 44 images in this month’s online exhibition, entitled “Fabricated Realities,” curated by the publisher and founder of The Hand Magazine, Adam Finkelston!

Adam Finkelston writes: In looking at the many wonderful submissions to this call, I could not help but be amazed at the variety of ways in which artists interpreted the concept of a fabricated reality. I was thinking of art critic A.D. Coleman’s concept of the directorial mode. This describes pictures in which the artist has created something for the purpose of photographing it. The imposition of the hand of the artist on a medium that is ostensibly about reproduction is an interesting notion to me. The hand implicates agency over our lives, control, and the ability to turn ideas into actions. Of course, there is only so much control and so much agency we can claim, so we also have to be open to the reality of situations; to “go with the flow”, as it were. This give and take between reality and fiction, agency and passivity is a tension that underlies the fabrication of reality in photographic pictures. 

In making my selections, I looked for images that included subject matter that had been fabricated specifically and only for the camera. I also looked for images that had been thoughtfully crafted, cleverly composed, and that created a strong narrative, especially when that narrative was open-ended and encourages my imagination. 

This exhibition includes images that are fantastical, playful, dark, funny, serious, and fascinatingly confusing. The images inhabit a mysterious space between the real and unreal, waking and dreaming, theater and everyday life. What drew me to most of these images was how they blurred the boundary between life and theater. I like the images that are a bit confusing or unclear. I want to be a little mystified; to have to figure it out a little. The images I chose made me think about how much of the image is fabricated and how much is found. I would encourage viewers of the exhibition to challenge themselves to figure out how or why an image was made. Make up your own realities to match the images you see. 

I want to thank all of the artists who answered this call. There were over 200 images that got whittled down to 44. It was a difficult but a very fun and rewarding task. Thanks to Michael Kirchoff and Analog Forever Magazine for inviting me. I hope you all enjoy the exhibition. – Adam Finkelston

GALLERY 

About the Curator

Adam Finkelston is an artist, educator, and publisher based in Prairie Village, Kansas. He has a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, a BA in Art Education from the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC), an MA in Photography from UMKC where he studied with Elijah Gowin, and is currently pursuing his MFA at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, where he is studying with Christopher James. 

Mr. Finkelston’s work has been exhibited in several solo and group exhibitions and is included in publications on alterative process photography by notable authors, Jill Enfield and Christina Z. Anderson. Mr. Finkelston has taught art at various levels for 18 years. Currently, he is a guest lecturer in printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as a teacher and visual arts department coordinator at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, KS. In addition to teaching, Mr. Finkelston is the owner and publisher of The Hand Magazine: A Magazine for Reproduction-based Arts, through which he has curated and juried numerous exhibitions. Mr. Finkelston’s work encompasses both printmaking and photography.