Photorealist painters, painted works based closely on photographs. But photography never replicates the world exactly as it is: the curvature of the camera lens has slightly deformed the shape of the face, the tip of the nose and certain strands of hair appear out of focus, and other distortions have crept into the work.

Photorealism was realism of a new kind: not representation so much as the representation of representation, a clear acknowledgment of the role of the camera as an intermediary between reality and the artist.