Each of the artists in Surreal Geometries utilizes experimental methodologies to explore foundational aspects of photography as an art form, as well as a personal and societal form of expression. The various ways in which their works manifest represent complex interrogations of how photography has the potential to reflect, shape, and even manipulate our understanding of the world around us. Photography’s presumed neutral and objective stance is challenged as subjectivity and interpretation find their way into the artists’ images through the use of bold geometric constructs, such as the fracturing of both visual space and physical plane, image repetition, and creation of novel forms. The presumption of literal representation is abandoned in favor of a surreal interpretation of object as concept, with each artist crafting the way in which they present their unique vision.

Denise Laurintaitis and her family upended their lives to make a spur-of-the-moment cross-country move. Using the lumen printing process to render large-scale palm leaves in a gridded format, she reflects upon the place she now calls “home” and how – for the first time in her life – she is experiencing a sense of spontaneity that expands beyond the confines of the geometric shape that forms the structural foundation of her work.

Rather than relying on conventional equipment, Jacob McGuinness designs and constructs his own cameras, which often feature hundreds of apertures and inner structures that divide sheets of film into gridded compositions. He uses these creations to interrogate the perceived neutrality of the camera as a tool, recontexutalizing it as a device that frames and distorts perception.

Millee Tibbs is drawn to photography because of its ubiquitous presence in our culture and its duplicitous existence as both an indexical representation of reality and a subjective construction of it. With a focus on the photograph as object, she explores the intersection of the authentic and the constructed in relation to idealized – and often commodified – landscape imagery, as well as the ways in which photography can serve to frame historical narratives.

Note from Dale Rio, Co-Founder and Curatorial & Programming Coordinator of The Halide Project: With 2025 marking the ten-year anniversary of The Halide Project, I am particularly pleased with the serendipity of how the three artists in our spring invitational exhibition have come together to represent the main aspects of Halide as an organization; our community darkroom, educational programming, and exhibition space. The darkroom is represented by Jacob McGuinness, Denise Laurintaitis recently took part in one of our workshops, and Millee Tibbs joins our community as an internationally-recognized exhibiting artist.