SITUATION #193

Workshop with Kristin Klein on the speculative stretching of stock photography

Every day we encounter Instagram feeds with their selfies, travel photos, cute animal pictures and cleverly staged food photographs that all seem to look more or less the same. Individuality quickly blurs with mainstream as we scroll and swipe through recurring memes and TikTok choreographies. Have we just about seen the whole internet?

In the workshop we will work with established social media motifs and in particular with stock photography. These photos, often produced in image factories, are speculative in order to illustrate as many different situations as possible. Made for quick consumption, they seem quite absurd upon closer inspection. Yet in their exaggerated forms they provide information about common social ideas and norms. In the workshop we will design kits for new stereotypes that differ from the old ones. Following the example of the DIS collective, we will manipulate the image codes of everyday life and develop alternative scenarios.

More by Kristin Klein: kristin-klein.net