Photography 2.0 explores the changes taking place in Spanish photography in the context of mass image production, globalization and post-capitalism Joan Fontcuberta surveys the work of around twenty photographers born after 1970 who share a critical view of the new situation.
The earliest photographers grew up in the visual culture of painting; later generations took cinema – and then TV – as their visual reference. Now Internet has burst onto the scene as a universe that shapes contemporary perspectives. A universe characterised by an endless flow of images. This mass production of photographs may be regarded as an effect of post-capitalism and globalization, prompted by a succession of technological and cultural innovations. The new context has rewritten the rules of the image game. The values of “solid” photography underpinned by the techno-scientific culture and the industrial economy of the nineteenth century have been replaced by those of “liquid” photography, based on the virtual culture and information economies of the twenty-first century.
Photography 2.0 focuses on these changes through an examination of the situation in Spain, where a whole new wave of young photographers are currently engaged in a critical ap- praisal of the new situation. The exhibition comprises three sections. The first addresses the banalisation of the photographic act, the cortex of reality shows, unbridled voyeurism and loss of privacy. The second session looks at formulations of social identity, biographical narratives and personal fictions, in the light of new digital tools. The final section explores the “technological unconscious” of post-photography, the accidents and fissures that are artistically recycled to provide an innovative aesthetic vocabulary.
