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Photographer Barbara Probst documents the same moment in time from vastly different perspectives in her work, such as "Exposure #11A: Duane and Church streets, New York City, 6.10.02, 3:01 p.m." -

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A photo captures a woman taking a vigorous walk in the European countryside, striding in her white hoodie before a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and a Swiss-looking chalet. But things are not as they seem: In the next photo, the camera "zooms out" to reveal the backdrop as a two-dimensional ruse. The mountains are no more than a flat image on a canvas, hanging on a rooftop in midtown New York City.

Photographer Barbara Probst examines perspective, context, the concept of "truth" in photography and the medium itself in "Exposures," now on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art through March 8.

"Exposures" shows photos in groups of two to six, each focusing on a single moment in time. Titles of the art are functional in this way, such as "Exposure #11a: Duane and Church streets, New York City, 6.10.02, 3:01 p.m."

Images are shot at the same time from different perspectives; above, below and in angles spiraling out from the subject like sun's rays. They include blurred motion, black and white, and images that are beautiful from one perspective, and misshapen and grotesque from another.

Probst divides her time between her Munich studio and New York City, where she lives with her husband. Originally a sculptor, she says seeing an image from many perspectives challenges how we interpret what we see.

"We really want to believe that it was like that, what we see in the photograph, because it's tied to reality," Probst said. "What is important in these images (is that they) show different narratives about the same moment. The narrative is questioned in that moment when they contradict each other, and that's very much what I'm interested in."

In "Exposure #23: Munich," Probst poses two brown-eyed children in dappled light under a tree. In one photo, the girl stares straight into the camera; in the next, the gap-toothed boy is the focus with his direct gaze. It shows how perspective can affect the viewer's evaluation of importance, or the primary subject in a work of art.

"A photographic image is always tied to reality in comparison to a painting," Probst said. "We want to believe and we do believe. By showing different views of the same thing in the same moment, the images show that they are really different beliefs of the same thing. (These images reveal that) we never know how another person perceives the world."

Probst experiments with black-and-white versus color photographs, often including both in the same exposure set. She highlights textures in sweaters and light, patterns revealed in clothing and crosswalks.

One set, with the full title "Exposure #36: Munich Studio, 09.26.05, 2:34 p.m.," shows in five shots a young woman in sharp close-up, against a canvas that makes her appear to be in a backyard, against another canvas of people on a city street, and the most "realistic," in the studio itself with cameras surrounding her.

Probst thinks of this as a kind of photographic sculpture, showing a subject in space and time.

"It really investigates the three-dimensional space of a situation," Probst said. "It is very related to what I did as a sculptor. You're working on a figure from different sides and you try to make it work in three dimensional space."

She added that while she's not overly interested in cubism, the idea is a cubist one -- for example, Pablo Picasso included multiple views in a single image. Curators also compare her work to that of early 20th-century cubist Georges Braque.

Looking at the work displayed in "Exposures," one also gets the sense that for Probst, context may be as important as the primary subjects or people. Visible cameras create artwork that comments on its own creation by showing the tools used to create the piece.

That the cameras are in many images, Probst said, is a necessary condition of her work.

"I think it's very beautiful to see the making of the image," she said. "You can actually see how they're made, how the other cameras looked at the same thing. They're almost like people looking at something. It tells us a lot about our subjective view, how differently we look at, understand and find the narrative of the same thing."

Probst's next show is in New York City at the end of February, at which she'll be showing work that's at least 6 months old.

"I'm constantly working on something new," she said, "but I don't like to put them so quickly in an exhibition. I need to know it's good before I let it go."

IF YOU GO

"Barbara Probst: Exposures" will be on display in the State Street Gallery in the Madison Museum of contemporary Art, 227 State St., through March 8. Admission if free, although donations are appreciated. MMoCA is closed on Mondays; see mmoca.org for more information about hours and related events.