Real vs Imagined: Facts and Fictions
“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”
— Jessamyn West
We live in a time when we’re constantly rushing, with information and images barrelling towards us at a record-breaking pace; yet simultaneously we are alerted to pause, to consider, and to reconsider sources to critically assess whether the content we’re viewing on our screens is fact or fiction.
Real vs Imagined is the final instalment in our trilogy series exploring contrast themes. This issue follows suit from our previous two, Order vs Chaos and Home vs Away, in asking our readers to pause; but in this instance, the payoff feels considerably kinder.
As you'll see in the print edition, we have again taken the opportunity to flip the script on how readers experience our magazine. From the cover, the publication opens as per usual, but somehow concludes in the middle. Flip the print edition on its back to find another beginning, a different entry point, through a second cover, again concluding in the middle. Just like water, artists in this issue find a path using the stories they tell to offer unexpected interpretations of ideas, while challenging viewers in a gentler way. Blurred lines and in-between spaces are where our contributing artists take us again here.
In this issue, we share Real stories by artists such as Ukrainian photographer Maxim Dondyuk whose heartbreaking work is painfully quiet, and yet silently screams of the devastation left behind by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His documentation of the remnants of the war seems eerily similar to scenes from Hollywood apocalypse film sets. The images simply don’t read as “real,” but Ukrainians live with this very real truth and generational devastation daily.
From a Canadian perspective, one of our cover artists, Carolyn Cheng, takes a new angle at land viewed from a helicopter. Her images shift the genre of landscape photography into artistic abstraction. With minimal shifts in colour, her images change the way viewers read her work and consider the scars and damage we have collectively inflicted on our Earth.
Meanwhile in the UK, StreetMax also gently unsettles us. Without elaborate editing or staged performances, he creates photographs that feel almost impossible — images that ask us to question not only what we are seeing, but also why we believe, or doubt, it.
Curiosity-led personal work on the Imagined side of this issue, by artists including Angela Lewis, Chris Robinson, JW Toftness, and Jason Bomer, present photography as a tool for a playground of ideas. These artists’ invite us to ask questions of our imaginations as a launchpad for personal introspections.
Yvette Hamilton’s research-based work combines lost histories and AI to conjure Elizabeth Fulhame, a chemist whose work directly contributed to the birth of photography. Although most records and images of and about Elizabeth Fulhame have long been lost, Yvette aims to craft a portrait of the scientist. AI’s limitations and bias prove once again interesting territory to navigate.
Our PORTFOLIO pages from our international Call for Submissions are loaded with starting points for leads to artists around the world whose work contributes to this issue’s conversations. A very special thanks to the volunteer jury team for its efforts to curate a small selection of works from a large pool of submissions we are so grateful to have received.
As this issue concludes our trilogy, we hope the series has been an enjoyable read that has inspired you to perhaps flip the script on your own photography and find your own unique angle for your voice, whether narrative and creative, or documentary and factual.
This issue features:
Carolyn Cheng: Gifts from above, by Sherry Chunqing Liu
Maxim Dondyuk: Meditations on the Human Condition by Alan Bulley
StreetMax: Cipher City by Sherry Chunqing Liu
Silver, Salt, and AI: Imaging Elizabeth Fulhame by Yvette Hamilton
Angela Lewis: Finding my grandmother in portraits of other women
Jason Bomers’ LOST MEN by Terence Dick
Chris Robinson: Crafting Punchlines
JW Toftness: AMMMMT
PORTFOLIO featured artists
From our International Call for submissions:
Gaëtan Changeur, Liv Talarico (CAN), Apostolis Giannakopoulos, Debbie Conacher (CAN), Chris Myhr (CAN), Gustavo Jabbaz (CAN), Matt Crabtree (UK), Willie Runte (UK), Vicky Martin (UK), Nika Belianina (CAN), Anna Weidle (DE), Leanne Trivett S.(US), Martha Davis (CAN), Camille Roquet (FR), and Tash Damjanovic (CAN).
And more...
Photo book recommendations by Alan Bulley
Change Made: Reimaging Comunities Through Climate Action by Sid Naidu
PHANTASMIC PHOTOS Meditations on Imagination in the Hamilton Family’s Archive by Cassandra Spires
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photoED magazine is also available as digital replicas for readers worldwide on Press Reader and Flipster platforms.
This issue could not have been made possible without the support of: Tamron, Nikon, The Photo Historical Society of Canada, Beau Photo, Harcourt House, Think Tank Photo, and Total Image Works.
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A very generous anonymous private donor passionate about supporting Canadian women in photography, our Patreon Patrons, Downtown Camera, and Front Row Insurance.
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