OPENING | The Painted Photograph

“The ability to digitally manipulate images has become available to anyone who owns a cell phone, effectively obliterating the notion that photography represents an accurate record of “the real.” As a former visual effects compositor in the film industry, Shane is especially well versed in the limitless possibilities of image manipulation made available through digital media. The works are created using digitally composited focus-stacked photographs of thick, individually formed brushstrokes of paint. This process layers multiple digital photographs to eliminate depth of field, revealing silky, grainy, and pocked qualities of a surface that would be otherwise invisible to the naked eye. The lush, dimensional qualities of these images belie their total flatness. Further disorienting our sense of perception is the fact that the image of the canvas, visible at the borders of each paint sample, is made from a life-sized scan that contradicts the dramatically enhanced scale of the paint samples.” Laura Schneider, 2016