Member Hour – Real/UNreal: Photography from the Permanent Collection

A black-and-white photograph with a blurry figure walking away from a photobooth the the left, with multiple exposures creating a surreal landscape to the right. — Bart Parker, (American, 1924-2013), *Untitled (Multiple Exposure Photograph with Phone Booth)*, 1976, gelatin silver print, Taubman Museum of Art, Gift of Ray Kass, 2004.031

Event Series (See All)

Sep 12, 2025

9:00 am – 10:00 am

Photography has been closely associated with ideas of objectivity and truth. Yet from the beginning, artists have tested those assumptions, manipulating images through staging, darkroom techniques, or later, digital tools, to bend reality or construct entirely fictitious scenes.

From the Museum’s permanent collection, the photographs in real/UNreal invite viewers to reconsider the trust we often place in them and remind us that every image carries choices, fictions, and the possibility of narrative. The works are not anomalies, but part of a long tradition of using photography to stretch, question, and reinvent what we call reality.

Please check-in at Visitor Services when you arrive, and we will meet in the Atrium and go to the galleries together.

Reminder: Members are encouraged to bring up to two paying guests with them to each Member Hour.

Registration requested.

Members: Free
Member Guests: $10

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