Image Capital

The exhibition "Image Capital" tells the history of photography as an information technology. It is dedicated to different imaging procedures and explores the myriad utilitarian uses of the medium and its function in processing and securing the flow of information and data. The concept for the exhibition was developed by the photography historian Estelle Blaschke and the artist Armin Linke. "Image Capital" comprises photographs and video works by Armin Linke, complemented by selected historical photos, archive material and publications. The exhibition in Eschborn also includes a site-specific video work developed by the artist with experts of Deutsche Börse AG. It focuses on how financial data flows are represented visually and help optimise stock trading.

Since its invention 200 years ago, photography has reached into every sphere of society, transforming science, art, politics, and the news as well as all kinds of commerce and production. It documents the visible world and is at the same time a tool for storing and reproducing images. Its utilisation came at a time when production and administrative processes were expanding and needed to be optimised. Information needed to flow and be accessible. As a cost-effective and endlessly reproducible recording and storage medium, photography contributed to the development of global industries and economic systems. Today, the increasing digitisation of images and data is opening up new uses for photography, for example in architecture, design or the financial sector. "Image Capital" reflects on the medium and its many operational areas of application.Estelle Blaschke is a photography historian. She holds a professorship for photographic media at the University of Basel. Armin Linke is a photographer and filmmaker, he currently is a guest professor at ISIA Urbino (Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche di Urbino) in Italy.

"Image Capital" at The Cube, Eschborn is curated by Anne-Marie Beckmann, Director of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and Cornelia Siebert. The exhibition is a cooperation of Centre Pompidou, Paris; Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt/Eschborn; Fondazione MAST, Bologna, and Museum Folkwang, Essen. It has already been shown in different versions at the Museum Folkwang and the Fondazione MAST. Parallel to the presentation at the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, "Capital Image" will be on display at the Centre Pompidou (27 September 2023 – 26 February 2024).