Online Group Exhibition - "Art of Illusion” January 2023
Analog Forever Magazine is pleased to showcase 74 images in this month’s online exhibition, entitled “Art of Illusion,” curated by independent artist and copy editor for Analog Forever Magazine, Lisa Toboz!
Lisa Toboz writes:
When I wrote the proposal for the Art of Illusion exhibition, I thought I had an idea of what I was looking to find in a photograph interpreting this theme. Once I combed through the submissions, however, I became so excited and inspired by the creativity and cleverness in these works that I broadened my own interpretation of how illusion is represented through imagery. And what is a photograph but a trick of composition and light?
Many of the photos made me laugh and ask how did they do that? Many of the photos moved me in their otherworldly beauty. Paul Estevez’s image of a mermaid in a bathtub with her stilettos resting on the floor beside her shows humor that is difficult to convey through photography. Cecilia Bonilla’s photomontage of an arm curved around a tall lamp lends a modern take on Dadaist principles: wit, playfulness, and artistic freedom. Moving beyond the confines of still imagery, Alina Chirila’s emulsion lift shows an arm gently peeling the edge of the frame, while Clarissa Harris’s carefully embroidered Polaroid gives texture and three-dimensional pop to a flower field.
In an age of scrolling through hundreds of photographs a day, I hope you take the time to slow down, pay attention, and look for the tiny secrets in each of these works, which challenge notions of what photography is and what it can be with skill and imagination.
~ Lisa Toboz
GALLERY
About the Curator
Lisa Toboz is a self-taught, Pittsburgh-based artist with a background in writing and literature. Her work explores self-portraiture and creativity as a form of healing using various Polaroid cameras and film. She is inspired by vernacular photography, Victorian spirit photography, and ‘70s supernatural cinematography, as well as reading fiction. Her recent photo books include Dwell (Polyseme, 2020) and The Long Way Home (Static Age UK, 2018). Her Polaroid photography can be found in various publications including Shots Magazine, as a featured artist in She Shoots Film: Self Portraits, and Polaroid Now (Chronicle Books, 2021). A copy editor by trade, she has exhibited internationally and is represented by photographer Stefanie Schneider’s Instantdreams Gallery (Palm Springs, CA).
