"An Unreliable Record: Exploring the Photographic Imaginary" Opening reception, UNE Art Gallery Portland
An Unreliable Record: Exploring the Photographic Imaginary
Artwork from the Stephen K. Halpert Photographic Collection at UNE; curated by Nelleke Mack
July 10-September 7, 2025
Opening reception Thursday, July 10th, 5-7pm
UNE Art Gallery Portland
In 1917, two girls set off into the woods of West Yorkshire to make some magic. Elsie, aged 16, and Frances, aged 9, borrowed a quarter-plate camera to prove that their fairy friends were real. Although the authenticity of the images (referred to by historians as the Cottingley fairies photographs) has been routinely called into question, Elsie managed to capture something very real: our belief in the photographic record.
An Unreliable Record explores some of the more imaginative corners of the Stephen K. Halpert Photography Collection, including a newly acquired Cottingley Fairies print. The works on view are less concerned with empirical documentation, instead demonstrating the possibilities of photography to create or capture the impossible. Some illustrate the ability of photography to manipulate that which is seen, while others employ more subtle fabrications to harness the viewers' experience.
The constructed nature of photographic images has long since been debated for its ability to communicate truth, but this selection celebrates that illusion and the power it has to communicate the ineffable, that very real magic we experience every day.
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