Barbara Kasten: Stages, by Eva Recinos
In a digital era that knows full well not to trust the images seen on the Internet, or even in person, it’s expected that we might approach photographs with a hint of reserve. How much of what we see is “true” to the extent that it looked just that way when the photo was taken? How much was constructed afterward?
Much of the literature surrounding the photographic work of Barbara Kasten focuses on the question of veracity. Viewers must be reminded, lest they forgot or are encountering Kasten’s work without knowing her process, that her images are not Photoshop collages. Stages looks not only at Kasten’s photography but also at her overall production and the way in which she plays with the world’s stages-its outdoor spaces and natural forms-and creates her own by meshing her work with dance productions and carefully constructing images through her own elaborate staging.