Untitled, from the "Fool's Gold" series

About the Photographer

Barel, Tal

Israeli, b. 1985

Israeli photographer Tal Barel is motivated by a longstanding interest in the history of photographic practice as empirical research. This classificatory function is one shared by museums, knowledge-generating institutions that shape our understanding of the world. Barel’s Fool’s Gold series combines the two. Photographing within museums, she uses digital manipulation to disrupt its objects, exhibitions, and spaces. The enigmatic images that result call into question our ability to represent or access the truth, challenging our most trusted modes of knowledge production. Barel recently received an honorable mention from the MoCP Snider Prize committee as well as the Juror’s Selection Award in Filter Photo’s Context 2015 exhibition. She graduated cum laude from the Fine Arts MFA program at Pratt Institute in 2015 and received honorable mention for the 2015 MoCP Snider prize.