Fabricated Realities

Thomas Demand (Munich, b. 1964) is a photographer who constructs models of famous settings from mass-media images. He then snaps shots of the models and prints them to be life-size. Such settings tend to be places that have significance that most people can attach themselves to; for example, Demand reconstructed the underpass in Paris where Princess Diana met her end. Of these places, we are encouraged, as viewers to consider the story behind his photographs, yet that the photographs only appear to be real places encourages the viewer to consider the nature of photography. In doing this, Demand makes a statement about the misplaced trust that people put in photographs. Images do not tell the entire story, as they are limited to simply one perspective that can be used to manipulate and twist the truth. When producing his models, Demand often leaves evidence of the fact that the setting is merely a representation of a real place. This evidence can be used to allude to the idea that photographs lack credibility and you cannot always believe everything you see or are told.

Time Arts

This is my first post.