Download or read book Theatres of the Real written by Jan Baetens and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Theatres of the Real presents work by eight photographers Sarah Dobai, Annabel Elgar, Tom Hunter, Sarah Pickering, Nigel Shafran, Clare Strand, Mitra Tabrizian and Danny Treacy, who can be seen as extending and redefining a tradition of British documentary photography by engaging with a range of social issues or by simply recording aspects of our contemporary world. However, the work that they make does not conform to the conventional methods and style of documentary photography." "Many of these artists' works involve situations that have been staged for the camera: sets have been constructed, actors have been dressed in costumes, and narrative scenarios invented. Other works, however, conform to the conventions of 'straight' photography: they record pre-existing scenes without any kind of direct intervention by the photographer. However, what unites all of these photographs is a sense of theatricality. Ranging from melodramatic reconstructions to the small tales of everyday --