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: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.Related:Jessica & Ashlee Simpson’s Dad Puts Sincerity in Pop PhotographyIs This Can of Black Beans Pop Art's New Icon?Pop Art Dream Worlds Emerge in Vibrant Collages
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