As Real As It Gets is a photography project by Thomas Nolf exploring humanity’s need for escape through aviation culture. Between 2020 and 2024, Nolf traveled the globe, engaging with flight simulator enthusiasts, aircraft spotters, and visiting the world’s largest model airport, Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Nolf rekindled his childhood fascination with flying through Microsoft Flight Simulator, inspiring him to connect with others who similarly escape reality through aviation. Enthusiasts build elaborate home cockpits, ranging from desk setups to immersive recreations using real aircraft parts. This hobby provides a sense of control, structure, and autonomy, with some believing they could land an actual plane. The project also highlights aircraft spotters who document planes with precision. At places like Maho Beach in Sint-Maarten, spotters and tourists gather to experience low-flying planes against stunning tropical backdrops, merging thrill and beauty. Through photography, simulated images, and archival footage, Nolf examines the dreamy allure of aviation. His stylized compositions blur the lines between reality and fiction, reflecting on the romanticism and artificiality of escape.
Thomas Nolf (b. 1986) is a Belgian visual artist whose work explores how people construct meaning and seek escape in a world shaped by myth, memory, and simulation. His projects blend documentary photography, found materials, text, and simulated imagery to examine the thin line between fiction and reality.
Nolf often works with communities and environments where fantasy and belief systems intersect with personal longing and collective identity. Whether investigating aviation culture during global lockdowns or examining the mythologised landscapes of post-war Bosnia, his work delves into how narratives are built, performed, and repurposed.
With a poetic and often critical eye, Nolf frames everyday rituals, historical enigmas, and virtual realities to reveal how they serve as outlets for control, nostalgia, or freedom. At the core of his practice lies a fascination with photography’s ability to both document and distort—a tool to question what is real, what is remembered, and what is imagined.
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