Theatres of the Real

Theatres of the Real presents photography from eight British-based artists whose unconventional works extend and redefine a tradition of British documentary photography.
Straddling the boundaries between fact and fiction, these images create a hallucinatory vision of contemporary Britain. Many of the photographs in this important and timely book involve situations staged for the cameras: sets have been constructed, actors dressed in costumes and narrative scenarios invented. Others work closer to the expectations of 'straight' photography: recording pre-existing scenes without direct intervention by the photographer. What unites them all is a sense of theatricality. Ranging from melodramatic reconstructions to small tales of everyday domestic life, these images portray the world as a stage set in which we play out our stories.