Artist Statement

This study interrogates the contrast between the relatively unexplored territory of stock photography as an academic focus, and its widespread exploitation in visual culture. Ubiquitous online in its various commercial and editorial formats as well as on social media, stock photography is worthy of attention because of the many characters it takes on. Taking satire as a starting point, this study examines the limits of stock photography, or the “wallpaper of consumer culture”, captured by the renderings of stock images in meme culture, while surveying alternate possibilities of their handling in art and contemporary photography practices.

• Nathalie Agostin, Montreal, Canada. Let’s talk critical theory, method and theory in art history, formalism in 20th and 21st century visual culture and new media strategies in communications and PR.