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Ordinary Pictures Takes a Profound Swing at the Stock Photo Industry

As the Walker Art Center's new exhibition proves, stock photography is more powerful than you think.
Diana Shi
All images courtesy Walker Art Center if not otherwise noted

With its collection of familiar and slightly clichéd images of pop culture, spanning from 1960 to the present, the Walker Art Center's Ordinary Pictures exhibit examines that fine line between the manufacturing and high-art worlds of the lucrative stock photo industry. Much more than just the default images for advertisements that champion consumerism, stock photography is also a flashpoint for artistic critique, accumulating an estimated $1 billion worldwide. Containing over 45 different artworks, the Ordinary Pictures collection combines faddish imagery with the actual tools by which stock photos are created. An oversized camera, resembling a giant microscope, towers over viewers aside a blown-up grid of colors—both offer a representation of the “creative” process behind stock photography, as well as its caveats. As the show's press release sums up, "[Ordinary Pictures] considers contemporary art’s own function as an ever-expanding global image economy." Check out images from the show below:

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Installation view of Ordinary Pictures exhibit

Once Upon A Time, Steve McQueen, 2002, 35mm slides transferred to digital, sound, running time 70 minutes, Collection Walker Art Center, Gift of Michelle and Bill Pohlad and the T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2014, © Steve McQueen. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Installation view

Squirrel, Elad Lassry, 2012, c-print, painted frame, 14.5 x 11.5 x 1.5 in, Justin Smith Purchase Fund, 2012. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Installation view

Installation view

Tiger, Sarah Charlesworth, 1985, cibachrome with lacquered wood frame, 42 x 32. Courtesy the Estate of Sarah Charlesworth and Maccarone Gallery, New York

Recto/Verso, Robert Heinecken, 1988, 12 silver-dye bleach color prints, 14 x 11 in, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Tess E. Armstrong Fund, The Robert Heinecken Trust, Chicago. Courtesy Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles

Installation view

Installation view. OMEGA, Amanda Ross-Ho, 2012, aluminum, steel, wood, high-density foam, extruded rubber, enamel paints, cast urethane, glass, 156 × 93 1/4 × 66 in. Courtesy the artist; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, and The Approach, London

Ordinary Pictures shows at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis until October 9th, 2016. Explore more of the exhibit here. The exhibit can also be collected in a special book of photos, which you can find here.

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Tagged:minneapolisPhotographyAbstractvisual artInstallationspaintingsPop Artgroup showart criticismprintsstock photographyWalker Art CenterOrdinary PicturesCreators
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