Over the first few weeks of the exhibition, I have been so impressed by the creative and humorous efforts that our visitors have made posing with the backdrop in the in-gallery photo booth in Allegory and Illusion. Some visitors have even introduced their own props and costumes into their photos.One of the most popular trends in the gallery has been for visitors to appear as if they are holding up or framing the moon, as in the first image below.One visitor disregarded the clear night sky in the backdrop by standing under an umbrella, perhaps in homage to an image of a Burmese girl posed with a parasol in the exhibition. We likely have Halloween to thank for the appearance of two Mickey Mouse hats in the gallery last week, and also for finding Waldo in our midst!

While many of the photographs in the exhibition are staged in front of painted backdrops, we rarely see the subjects of those early works attempt to stage a scene as some of the visitors to Allegory and Illusion have done.  Keep your creativity coming, post personal portrait photos from home, and be on the lookout for the second backdrop to be unveiled on November 20.