Which truths are self-evident?
Parallel realities are the specialty of Stan Douglas, the Vancouver photographer who since the 1980s has staged increasingly disorienting scenes of historical re-enactment that often draw on archival research to push the limits of his medium.
Cold War Canada, disco New York, the Arab Spring, forgotten scenes from the history of the old Pennsylvania Station: Douglas reconstructs his moments with all the casting and costuming of Hollywood. He wields flash and toning just right, so that the first glance tricks us. Is this an actual shot from 1950? Is that an Eggleston snap from some cokey after-party in 1975? Closer inspection says no, and Douglas leaves us — very much on purpose — to interpret these strange forgeries that want so plainly to be real.