True Pictures?

At the beginning of the 20th century, North American photography was seen as groundbreaking in the development of the medium's artistic visual language. In the 1980s this pioneering role was challenged by developments in Europe. Young artists no longer considered North American photography as a role model, and as a result it gradually moved out of the spotlight. True Pictures? now remedies this situation by presenting thirty American and Canadian photographers from three generations who, in part influenced by the advent of digital photography, saw and still see themselves challenged in particular by political and social upheavals. The list of themes is by no means short: the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the AIDS crisis, racism, feminism, questions around gender and sexuality, or identity politics. The urgency of these problematic situations prompts the artists to assume highly polarized positions. By following subjective and transmedial approaches and exhausting the technical possibilities of the medium, they almost inevitably touch on topics such as the often cited image overload--a phenomenon to which they respond with a targeted critique on the excesses of the "digital age."