Mining Photography
The Ecological Footprint of Image Production
1st Edition
Published in July 2022
Book
176 pages
978-3-95905-656-4 (ISBN)
Description
Seit ihrer Erfindung ist die Fotografie von der Gewinnung und Ausbeutung sogenannter natürlicher Rohstoffe abhängig. Nach Kupfer, Kohle, Silber und Papier, den Rohmaterialien der analogen Bildproduktion im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, ist die Fotografie im Zeitalter der Smartphones auf seltene Erden und Metalle wie Koltan, Kobalt und Europium angewiesen. Die Publikation widmet sich der Materialgeschichte zentraler Rohstoffe im Kontext der Fotografie und stellt den Zusammenhang zur Geschichte ihres Abbaus, ihrer Entsorgung sowie zum Klimawandel her. Mit historischen und zeit- genössischen Arbeiten erzählt sie die Geschichte der Fotografie als eine Geschichte der industriellen Fertigung und zeigt, dass das Medium tief in die vom Menschen verursachten Veränderungen der Natur verwickelt ist. Die Ausstellung zeigt zeitgenössische Arbeiten u. a. von Ignacio Acosta, Lisa Barnard, F& D Cartier, Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio, Susanne Kriemann, Mary Mattingly, Daphné Nan Le Sergent, Lisa Rave, Alison Rossiter, Robert Smithson, Simon Starling, Anaïs Tondeur, James Welling, Noa Yafe und Tobias Zielony sowie historische Werke u. a. von Eduard Christian Arning, Hermann Biow, Oscar und Theodor Hofmeister, Jürgen Friedrich Mahrt, Hermann Reichling und historisches Bildmaterial aus dem Agfa Fotohistorama Leverkusen, dem Eastman Kodak Archive, Rochester und dem FOMU Antwerpen sowie von Alexander von Humboldt gesammelte Mineralienproben aus der Sammlung des Museums für Naturkunde, Berlin.
Esther Ruelfs ist Kunsthistorikerin und Leiterin der Sammlung Fotografie und Neue Medien im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. Boaz Levin ist Schriftsteller, freier Kurator und Mitbegründer des Research Center for Proxy Politics.
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Photography has always depended on the extraction and exploitation of so-called natural raw materials. Having started out using copper, coal, silver, and paper-the raw materials of analogue image production in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-photography now relies, in the age of the smartphone, on rare earths and metals like coltan, cobalt, and europium. The exhibition focuses on the history of key raw materials utilized in photography and establishes a connection between the history of their extraction, their disposal, and climate change. Looking at historical and contemporary works, it tells the story of photography as a history of industrial production and demonstrates that the medium is deeply implicated in human-induced changes to nature. The exhibition shows contemporary works by a range of photographers and artists, including Ignacio Acosta, Lisa Barnard, F&D Cartier, Susanne Kriemann, Mary Mattingly, Daphné Nan Le Sergent, Lisa Rave, Alison Rossiter, Metabolic Studio's Optics Division, Robert Smithson, Simon Starling, Anaïs Tondeur, James Welling, Noa Yafe and Tobias Zielony, along with historical works by Eduard Christian Arning, Hermann Biow, Oscar and Theodor Hofmeister, Jürgen Friedrich Mahrt, Hermann Reichling, and others, and historical material from the Agfa Foto-Historama in Leverkusen, the Eastman Kodak Archive in Rochester and the FOMU Photo Museum in Antwerp as well as mineral samples collected by Alexander von Humboldt from the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin.
Esther Ruelfs is an art historian and head of the Photography and New Media Collection at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G). Boaz Levin is a writer, freelance curator, and co-founder of the Research Center for Proxy Politics.
Esther Ruelfs ist Kunsthistorikerin und Leiterin der Sammlung Fotografie und Neue Medien im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. Boaz Levin ist Schriftsteller, freier Kurator und Mitbegründer des Research Center for Proxy Politics.
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Photography has always depended on the extraction and exploitation of so-called natural raw materials. Having started out using copper, coal, silver, and paper-the raw materials of analogue image production in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-photography now relies, in the age of the smartphone, on rare earths and metals like coltan, cobalt, and europium. The exhibition focuses on the history of key raw materials utilized in photography and establishes a connection between the history of their extraction, their disposal, and climate change. Looking at historical and contemporary works, it tells the story of photography as a history of industrial production and demonstrates that the medium is deeply implicated in human-induced changes to nature. The exhibition shows contemporary works by a range of photographers and artists, including Ignacio Acosta, Lisa Barnard, F&D Cartier, Susanne Kriemann, Mary Mattingly, Daphné Nan Le Sergent, Lisa Rave, Alison Rossiter, Metabolic Studio's Optics Division, Robert Smithson, Simon Starling, Anaïs Tondeur, James Welling, Noa Yafe and Tobias Zielony, along with historical works by Eduard Christian Arning, Hermann Biow, Oscar and Theodor Hofmeister, Jürgen Friedrich Mahrt, Hermann Reichling, and others, and historical material from the Agfa Foto-Historama in Leverkusen, the Eastman Kodak Archive in Rochester and the FOMU Photo Museum in Antwerp as well as mineral samples collected by Alexander von Humboldt from the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin.
Esther Ruelfs is an art historian and head of the Photography and New Media Collection at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G). Boaz Levin is a writer, freelance curator, and co-founder of the Research Center for Proxy Politics.