Where, within an image, does the boundary between reality and representation lie?
The work of Jordan Beal, a visual artist and photographer, moves between the real and the imaginary, questioning the ways in which images contribute to shaping our perception of places.

His practice focuses on the narratives surrounding island contexts, borders, and experiences of displacement, using photography as a tool to open up new perspectives through which to read the world, between the present and history.
In the series Linéaments, he explores the island of Martinique, his birthplace, shaped by colonialism and transformed into a site of projections and fantasies. Beal brings photography and artificial intelligence into dialogue as devices capable of contributing to the construction of a collective imaginary made up of archetypes and narrative patterns that, often unconsciously, shape our perception of the world.
A photo of the horizon in Martinique I makes this reflection tangible, placing at its centre the visual representations we have internalised, the codes of exoticism, and the stereotypes through which we narrate its landscapes, history, and insular identity.
Beal asks artificial intelligence to recreate an image featuring Martinique, and then photographs the AI-generated image directly from the screen using a Polaroid SX-70. What we see, therefore, is not the place itself, but its projection: an image constructed from narratives and representations that, while not necessarily corresponding to reality, ultimately influence the way we perceive it.
What we are presented with, then, is an image of a beach – one that could have been printed on a postcard – captured at sunrise or sunset and immersed in a warm, enveloping light. The landscape resembles a tropical paradise, with calm waters reflecting the sunlight, a beach that seems to merge with the profile of the mountain, and a palm tree framing the scene. The colours seem to vibrate, while the forms are blurred, leaving more space for ambiguity and imagination; what we see are almost the outlines, the linéaments, of a place. Before we can fully grasp what the image represents, what reaches us first is the sensation it evokes.
A photo of the horizon in Martinique I is a photograph and is not a photograph: it is precisely this tension that calls the relationship between reality and representation into question. In this context, photography is not a record of a given truth, but becomes a means through which to question how a place is observed, imagined, and ultimately represented.

The artwork is presented at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2026, in the Emerging Voices section, by LA STATION CULTURELLE, Martinique, France.

Image: Jordan Beal, A photo of the horizon in Martinique I, 2025
Courtesy of the artist.

23/09/26