Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image, 1844–2018

Curated by Walead Beshty

Luma Arles presents Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image, 1844–2018, a major project exploring the rich history of mechanically-reproduced imagery from the nineteenth century to the present, curated by visual artist and theorist Walead Beshty.

Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image, 1844–2018 includes approximately 350 unique objects and artworks created by almost 90 different contributors. The exhibition and accompanying publication propose a reevaluation of the history of image production and its reception, as traced from the rise of industrialization through to the present-day world of the digital. The project is a critical examination of the “technical image,” a term coined by the Czech media theorist Vilém Flusser that describes a variety of mechanically-aided pictures—including the technologies specific to film, photography, video, slide projection, lithography, and serigraphy. Avoiding conventional disciplinary or medium-based distinctions traditionally employed in museum or academic settings, Picture Industry incorporates imagery associated with a wide array of sources, drawing from the natural sciences, criminology, genetics, journalism, medicine, communications theory, and the fine arts.

The display of works and objects within the exhibition emphasizes their original contexts of distribution, whether intended for art exhibitions, print publication, cinema, or television broadcast. Throughout, special care is taken to elucidate the significance of these various contexts, both by emphasizing the formats of their original public presentation, and through the use of extended wall labels which draw from an array of writing formats from disparate fields.

Technical images have provoked dramatic transformations in culture, giving voice to the voiceless, while simultaneously functioning as a powerful tool of corporate and governmental forces. Picture Industry emphasizes how technical images operate—how they shape our ability to communicate and commune with one another, how they inform our understanding of self and the world at large, formulating our past as they continue to influence our future. At the center of this exhibition is the notion that images are more than mere reflections of political circumstances, instead they are direct agents in the production of political life. The following constitutes one of many possible articulations of this premise, serving as a provisional history posited in the face of an ever uncertain future.

The exhibition includes works by the following artists: Thom Andersen, Georges Bataille, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Ericka Beckman, Gretchen Bender, Lynda Benglis, Alphonse Bertillon, Stewart Bird, Rene Lichtman & Peter Gessner, Black Audio Film Collective , Barbara Bloom, Sarah Charlesworth, Shea Cobb, Emile Cohl, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Charles Darwin, Stan Douglas, Ariel Dorfman & Armand Mattelart, Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne de Boulogne, Daniel Eisenberg, William H. Emory, Walker Evans, Harun Farocki, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Morgan Fisher, William Henry Fox Talbot, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Lee Friedlander & Stuart Klipper, Ernst Friedrich, Francis Galton, Isa Genzken, Liz Glynn, Dan Graham, Johan Grimonprez, James D. Hague & Clarence King, Lyle Ashton Harris, John Heartfield, Lewis Hine, Thomas Hirschhorn, Yngve Holen, Jenny Holzer, William Henry Jackson, Arthur Jafa, Fritz Kahn, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Fred Lonidier, Louis & Auguste Lumière, Robert Mapplethorpe, Étienne-Jules Marey, Chris Marker, Kerry James Marshall, Renzo Martens, Allan McCollum, Boris Mikhailov, Sagar Mitchell & James Kenyon, Charles Moore, Jean-Luc Moulène, Eadweard Muybridge, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Meret Oppenheim, Gordon Parks, Paul Pfeiffer, Jack Pierson, Seth Price, Eileen Quinlan, Jacob Riis, Martha Rosler, Cameron Rowland, August Sander, Allan Sekula, Stephen Shore, Fernando Solanas & Octavio Getino, Hito Steyerl, Georges Gilles de la Tourette, Wolfgang Tillmans, Sojourner Truth, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Kelley Walker, David Walsh, Lawrence Weiner, Christopher Williams, Andrew Norman Wilson, and Richard Wright.

Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image, 1844–2018 is produced by the Luma Foundation for Parc des Ateliers, Luma Arles. An early version of the exhibition was presented in 2016 as part of Systematically Open? New Forms for Contemporary Image Production in La Mécanique Générale at the Parc des Ateliers. Picture Industry travelled to CCS Bard Galleries and Hessel Museum, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York in 2017.

The exhibition is on view until January 6, 2019, Thursday–Sunday 11am–6pm.

Publication
The exhibition Picture Industry: A Provisional History of the Technical Image, 1844–2018 is accompanied by a major anthology of historic and contemporary writings by over 140 contributors. Published by Luma Foundation in collaboration with JRP|Ringier, the volume provides a rigorous and expansive survey of the photographic medium from its inception in the mid-nineteenth century to our current moment. Spanning nearly 900 pages, the anthology includes excerpts and reprints of seminal texts, facsimiles of historical publications, and a series of edited conversations with artists Stan Douglas, Hito Steyerl, Martha Rosler, Stephen Shore, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Contributors include (among others): Elizabeth Alexander, Ariella Azoulay, Ericka Beckman, Walter Benjamin, Alphonse Bertillon, Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne de Boulogne, Marta Braun, Sarah Charlesworth, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Walker Evans, Harun Farocki, Vilém Flusser, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dan Graham, Morgan Fisher, Lyle Ashton Harris, John Heartfield, Arthur Jafa, László Moholy-Nagy, Marshall McLuhan, Eadweard Muybridge, Gordon Parks, Jacob Riis, Wilhelm Röntgen, Martha Rosler, August Sander, Claude Shannon, Bernhard Siegert, Hito Steyerl, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Kelley Walker. 

About Luma
In 2004, Maja Hoffmann created the Luma Foundation in Switzerland to support the activities of artists, independent pioneers, and organizations working in the visual and performing arts, photography, publishing, documentary filmmaking, and multimedia. Envisioned as a production tool for Hoffmann’s multi-faceted ventures, the Luma Foundation produces, supports, and enables challenging art projects committed to an expansive understanding of environmental issues, human rights, education, and culture.

In 2013, Hoffmann launched Luma Arles to plan, develop, and manage the Parc des Ateliers, an expansive former industrial site located in Arles, France. Situated adjacent to the city’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, the Parc des Ateliers serves as the major programmatic and cultural center for Luma’s diverse activities. Luma Arles includes a resource center designed by architect Frank Gehry; various industrial buildings rehabilitated by Selldorf Architects; and a public park designed by landscape architect Bas Smets. The site’s main building designed by Gehry will open spring 2020.

Press contact:
Pierre Collet, pcollet [​at​] luma-arles.org / T +33(0)680 848 771