Exquisite Reality: Photography and the Invention of Nationhood 1851-1900 is the Cantor Arts Center's first born-digital exhibition. Organized with the support of Sue and John Diekman, the Geballe Fund for Academic Initiatives, the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Fund, Exquisite Reality documents the political role of early photography across the Mediterranean. Works included photographs by Pascal Sébah, the Gaetano Pedo Studio, Giorgio Sommer, Francis Frith, and William Henry Fox Talbot.

The exhibition is available online until 22 March 2022.

The exhibition was accompanied by a full catalogue, available online here.