It was a pleasure to view the many fine creations for this exhibition. Fantasy by definition is the free play of the imagination creating visual images of ideas which previously existed only in the mind. It was rewarding to see the wide range of possibilities the artists explored, with similarly wide ranging results.

The magic of photography combined with processes of manipulation, whether through traditional or contemporary computer methods, make these fantasy images possible. However, the current proliferation of methods raises the stakes beyond the technical skills of image making.

For this reason, the relative ease of creating fantastic results through contemporary methods, I looked for the idea as the driving force behind the images. When I viewed the 554 images by 163 artists, I looked for imagination, for individuality, and for work that expressed a concept, a fantasy of the mind, where the techniques used were less important than each artist’s idea.

My choices were made from a personal point of view with the desire to select those images which represented the artists’ ideas most clearly and which challenged me as a viewer.