The work of John Goto is nothing more than a digital illusion. We move through our world completely oblivious to the fact that much of our surroundings are subtly influenced by post-renaissance western paintings. Goto however is not oblivious to this fact, and his work shows a clear manipulation of this knowledge. He uses basic compositional principles to reconstruct a digital version of traditional landscapes. After creating such an idyllic fantasy world he places various figures throughout, each of them from a different social group and acting out various social conventions, exhibiting their own relationship to the natural world.
“Goto takes one social faction after another, transports them into a historical perspective of neo-classical grandeur and lets them show themselves up.”
On the surface of things it may seem that this illusion of a world is calm and serene but the dark and moody sky that Goto has employed in each of his images tells a different story, one of an approaching storm and impending doom. But for who? For the people depicted in the images or for the world at large? Perhaps this work of illusion is more to do with reality than it first appeared. Perhaps in the hands of a photographer such as Goto, the two are eternally interchangeable.
“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” - Arnold
Clark, R, 2001. John Goto; High Summer. Portfolio, #33, 4-11
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