photo illusionism

I use the term photo illusionism in my work to convey the idea that what I create, though based in the world of photography, is not completely real. Illusionism was the artistic attempt to paint something very precisely but in a deceptive fashion, Trompe-l’œil, French for ‘deceive the eye’. An ancient Greek story tells of a contest between two renowned painters. Zeuxis (born around 464 BC) produced a still life painting so convincing, that birds flew down from the sky to peck at the painted grapes. He then asked his rival, Parrhasius, to pull back a pair of very tattered curtains in order to judge the painting behind them. Parrhasius won the contest, as his painting was of the curtains themselves.