To celebrate the announcement of the 2018 Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Awards, United Photo Industries is exhibiting the work of two artists, Amelie Satzger and Lauren Menzies, in a dual exhibition at the UPI Gallery.

What is reality? by Amelie Satzger

What is Reality? Are we all just a hologram? Is the table still in the room while nobody is watching and why can we remember the past though not the future?

After reading the two books “A Brief History of Time” and “The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking, there were a lot of questions still remaining—and a lot of ideas for pictures. Inspired by the surrealism, I created a photographic portfolio, in which every artwork stands for another thesis of Stephen Hawking’s books.

Femme Fictions by Lauren Menzies

My self-portraits challenge the photographic medium through an investigation of the history of portraiture. Each image exploits millennial photography, depicting its ability to falsify perception. The selfie, fast fashion, and pop-culture obsessions are re-conceptualized via manipulated and handmade objects. Props are used as a device to fabricate personas, combining characteristics of the twentieth century with a modern twist. Notions of beauty, irony, and perception are presented by virtue of a faceless figure. The repetitive use of myself is a canon of the vast self-portraits of Cindy Sherman, yet contradicts her work through exploring my ability to expose a piece of my identity in each narrative. The only element of disguise in my work is the removal of the facial features. Empty space is heightened and shifted away from the screen by printing on handmade paper. The work questions the viewer’s interpretation, “Is it a drawing?” No, it’s a photograph.