Nancy Davenport: I call Photoshops!

The photography of Nancy Davenport is not something that one would normally call “fine art photography.” In her photographs, she combines various elements clearly taken from other images and changes their meaning entirely.

“Accident Prone,” and “The Apartments,” in particular, create slightly unrealistic scenes where horrible things are taking place. For example, in “Accident Prone,” one image shows a person standing on a cliff, waving to the camera while massive boulders appear to be falling directly above him. The viewer knows that this person has only moments to live, but the action has been frozen. “The Apartments,” shows various tragic and/or violent events occurring in a series of apartment buildings. One image, for example, shows a huge smoke cloud rising from behind some buildings while in the foreground, a missile is only seconds away from hitting the same buildings. Another image shows a group of masked men descending down the side of a building as if storming it during a revolution.

All of her “photos” have a similar theme. Action is frozen moments before something tragic, violent or bloody is about to occur. If these were real images, they would be amazing. However, these images are not real. Upon close inspection, it is possible to tell where editing has occurred in most of the pieces. For example, in the image where men are storming a building, the light being cast on the men in comparison to the light being cast on the building is extremely different. There are small “errors” like this in all of her pieces.

One must ask oneself, however, is this intentional? It’s clear that Davenport is skilled with Photoshop. But if she is so skilled, why has she made it possible for viewers to see where she’s edited her images? Does she perhaps want us to know that we’re being drawn into her own fantasy world?