As Real As It Gets is a photography project by Thomas Nolf in which he explores the human need for escape through the lens of aviation culture.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, Nolf rediscovered his childhood dream of becoming a pilot. At a time when travel was prohibited, he installed the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator on his computer and embarked on a virtual journey. The memory of the slogan “As Real As It Gets” — printed on the box of Flight Simulator 1998 — inspired him to seek out plane spotters around international airports and meet flight simulator pilots at home. Through their fascination with aviation, they found ways to keep their dreams alive or to temporarily escape from reality.

Flight simulator pilots are passionate about building cockpits at home. Some mount multiple screens to their desks, while others use actual aircraft parts to create immersive environments. These simulators offer a structured escape from the chaos of everyday life — a world where navigation is often harder. In the cockpit, with its switches and procedures, they find structure, autonomy, and control.

The plane spotters, on the other hand, operate in the real world. They observe, document, and photograph aircraft with great precision. While most stand at a safe distance along runways, a more adventurous scene unfolds at Maho Beach in Saint Martin (Caribbean), where tourists gather in the jet stream of approaching planes. Against a backdrop of turquoise water and azure skies, they feel the thrill of jets skimming just overhead before landing a few hundred metres away — a spectacle that has turned Maho Beach into an iconic holiday destination.

Among the many people Nolf encountered was Father Dane, a retired priest from the steel city of Sheffield, UK. As a child, Dane dreamt of becoming a pilot — a dream he realised before choosing a life of faith. Because of health concerns, he passed the simulator to a friend in Italy—after first showing it at Nolf’s exhibition at Be-Part. Before it was shipped off, Nolf and Father Dane made one final flight together. Their recorded conversation during the flight was exhibited in the installation and also included in the epilogue of the book publication ‘As Real As It Gets’(Art Paper Editions). In their exchange, the two find common ground in their shared longing for freedom and adventure.

Nolf combines photography with simulated imagery, text fragments, and childhood snapshots to explore aviation’s romantic and dreamlike appeal. His refined compositions and colour treatments echo the stylised, almost surreal aesthetics of video games, film, and advertising.Whether photographing Maho Beach or a runway in Miniatur Wunderland, Nolf frames each scene to highlight its artificial, staged quality. The people in his images appear caught in a still, stylised version of reality — suspended somewhere between fiction and truth. It’s within this ambiguity that the project thrives, blurring the lines between documentary and dream.

The texts Nolf includes are drawn from his encounters over the course of the project (2020–2024). Yet even here, he challenges the border between reality and fiction. The people he speaks with seem to drift into the realm of fictional characters, navigating an equally fictional world. His writing style — rich in cinematic and advertising references — heightens this sense of constructed reality.

Yet As Real As It Gets is also deeply personal. On the tables, Nolf presents childhood photographs, magazine clippings, and aviation brochures he collected as a boy. They reveal his early fascination with flight and expose a tension between the aviation industry’s idealised image and its technological roots in military development.

This project offers more than a glimpse into the world of aviation. It reflects our collective longing for freedom. Nolf recognises this urge in himself and channels it through his travels. The image of humankind as a “flight animal” is stripped of its narrow, moralising frame. We are all flight animals — searching for a space where we might, even briefly, be freed from the weight of daily life.

In his contribution to the publication, Round Trip Tickets to God, writer Arnon Grunberg asks: “What is it precisely from which we flee?”

What a luxury it is when no immediate answer comes to mind.

Curatorial text by Lara Verlinde (edited by Thomas Nolf) for the exhibition As Real As It Gets, Be-Part — Platform for Contemporary Art, 2025.
As Real As It Gets, book publication, published by Art Paper Editions (APE), 2025