Postcards from Space by Chris Rudolph

Postcard Thumbnail Image

MEDIUM: Digital Illustration

DESCRIPTION:
Postcards from space imagines a future full of space travel and nostalgia. Mixing new (digital photography and post-processing) with old (typography inspired by WPA style national parks posters, courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech) transports a viewer elsewhere for just long enough to want to go back.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
In our digital age we are bombarded with lies, cleverly hidden in the medium, but our brains have been trained to recognize photographs as epitome of truth. If a picture is a thousand words, we’re constantly consuming novels of deception taking form in airbrushed models and deceiving snapshots of inauguration crowds. I like experimental photography and extreme retouching, because the results are so implausible that they can’t possibly trick the brain into unconscious acceptance. Even unedited photos can lie through omission, while appearing to tell the truth, and modern editing software allows for on-demand fabrication of alternative facts. In a time where the press-secretary is unrepentant after tweeting out an undeniably edited video, there’s no imagery that isn’t suspect. In this moment, there’s some appeal to art so fantastic that it consciously affords us the choice to accept its otherworldly reality or dismiss it out of hand.