Fotograf Magazine

Reconstruction is renovation (re-building). And just as one can rebuild a house, one can also rebuild a photo image. Some reconstruction is so radical that it can be taken for new construction. Reconstruction is subject to a plan, it is thought through, and it changes a situation. On the contrary, a photographic image was always considered to be something straightforward – something that could not be changed by human plans. Many people still consider them to be so still today. And even those of us, who are not naive enough to believe in the honesty of photography, experience a feeling of truthfulness when looking at photographs. Roland Barthes said that photos are invisible. We say “that’s a lovely beach”, and not “that’s a lovely photo of a beach.” We see the thing or the person in the picture and not the picture itself. (Re)construction of photographs makes use of the viewer’s naiveté in order to draw him/her into a new “reality.” The most truthful medium is the most seductive for non-truths.