John Pfahl

This Chromogenic color print is from a series entitled Altered Landscapes, in which the photographer at once gives a nod to landscape photography, color photography, and conceptual art. John Pfahl investigates and exploits perceptual illusions. Here he has meticulously placed two sticks so that their shadows appear, when photographed, to take on physical substance, creating a further illusion that they are “not really in the photograph”, but are rather the result of some gimmickry.  Pfahl’s conceit is further complicated by the fact that there is of course nothing “real” about a photograph but the photograph itself. This almost minimalist image took hours to create, requiring careful geometrical calculations, waiting for the right light, making test photographs, and at the end, restoring the landscape to the state it was in before Pfahl arrived.