Whether on a smartphone, in the newspaper or on a computer – every day we experience our world through a flood of photographs. Many of the artists represented in the MMK Collection have explored media images and reinterpreted them in their works. They reflect on political topics that have been disseminated through images in the press, deconstruct the authenticity of press photographs, or create images for topics that previously defied illustration.

In the exhibition “Image Profile”, the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst will examine how the media shapes our ability to perceive images. The presentation of works from the collection at the MMK 2 will feature a spectrum of contemporary modes of expression ranging from sociopolitical photojournalism to forms of subjective, conceptual or staged photography.

Given its technical implications, pictorial capabilities and documentary character, photography has always been one of the most significant mediums in modern times. The art of the present would be inconceivable without photography. Photographic works today make up around half of the MMK’s extensive holdings of over 5,000 works.

Thematically, the selection made for this show focuses primarily on the social crises of our time, from current war zones in the work of Anja Niedringhaus, or Larry Clark’s intimate portrayal of his own generation against the background of the Vietnam war in his Tulsa series, to the question of the infinite scope that exists for manipulating reality by technical means underlying Thomas Demand’s installation Klause I–V.

The images on display will include major works by Kader Attia, Christian Boltanski, David Claerbout, Larry Clark, Thomas Demand, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Ryuji Miyamoto, Santu Mofokeng, Anja Niedringhaus, Inge Rambow, Dayanita Singh and Abisag Tüllmann – all artists represented by sizeable workgroups in the MMK collection.