Real/Unreal: Photographs from the Permanent Collection

Drawing from the Museum’s Permanent Collection, this exhibition brings together photographs that blur the line between fact and fiction, making the real appear strange and the imagined feel tangible.

Since the earliest days of photography, artists have manipulated images — through staging, darkroom techniques, or later, digital tools—to bend reality or construct entirely fictitious scenes.

The photographs in Real/Unreal — some altered, others simply suggestive — invite viewers to reconsider the trust we often place in photographs and the stories we create while we look.

Together, these photographs highlight the medium’s unique ability to both reflect and reshape reality, reminding us that every image carries choices, fictions, and the possibility of narrative.