The Lying Lens – A Selective Glossary of Image Manipulation

Since the invention of photography, we know about the diverse manipulation possibilities of the medium. The methods of image processing, for example, have since developed in parallel with advances in technology, from analog photo retouching in the darkroom to the digital diffuser of Photoshop. Due to new phenomena such as artificial intelligence, which is increasingly being used to generate images, questions about the authenticity of image content are more topical than ever.

The discussion about the veracity of the photographic image has actually become obsolete since the advent of postmodernism. With the end of the 1960s and the increasing “incredulity toward metanarratives” (Jean-François Lyotard), it became clear that there is no reality per se, but only a wide range of truths that are not controlled by a central authority, but by the plurality of the many.

On the occasion of FOTO WIEN 2023 and this year’s festival focus Photography Lies / The Lies of Photography, students from three important educational institutions for photography in Vienna are developing new works that deal with aspects of this topic. 

Parallel to the exhibition, a festival catalog is published by Steidl Verlag with EIKON’s (intentionally subjective) glossary on image manipulation, which complements the show.

With works by: Jamile Azadfallah, Costanza Brandizzi, Dominik Buda, Josefine Ehs, Anastasiia Fashchevska, Eginhartz Kanter, Minjae Kim, Matthias Köck, Katharina Liatskaia, Isabella Andrea Pacher, Ismael Picker-Schiebel, Valentin Schörghuber, Nicole Toferer, Peter Walde & Carlo Zappella, Lily Zlotover

Exhibition concept by EIKON | Thanks to: Michael Höpfner, Judith Pichlmüller