‘Hard Copy’ Gives the Humble Photocopier Its Due
Maybe Xerox printing can save us all.
Summary
- The International Center of Photography in New York presents HARD COPY, a group exhibition curated by Aaron Stern
- On view until May 4, the show expands on Stern’s ongoing project centered on the creative potential of the photocopier
- The exhibition features work by 15 artists, including Stephen Shore, Thomas Ruff, Ryan McGinley, Ari Marcopoulos and Shaniqwa Jarvis
Billions of photos are taken every day. Many are hardly precious and surely most were never meant to be seen again: rogue text screenshots; awkward, aspirational captures; things you forgot you wanted to buy. Faced with our growing pile of “digital detritus,” as Aaron Stern puts it, how do we sort out the good stuff? For Stern, the humble photocopier holds some answers.
The International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York is currently presenting HARD COPY, the expanded third iteration of Stern’s ongoing project on the creative potential of photocopied images. Curated alongside ICP’s creative director, David Campany, the exhibition gathers work by 15 artists, each filtered through the sublime streaks and grainy grayscale of the copy machine.
Moving between epic and intimate scales, HARD COPY brings us back to the magic of analog technologies and an era of more intentional image making. Works on view range from a 51-foot-long mural by Gray Sorrenti to recreations of Andy Warhol’s Factory lensed by Stephen Shore. Thomas Ruff’s erotic studies to David Black’s galloping horses and quiet mountain landscapes by Takashi Homma, all unified by the candor of toner and paper.
First launched at Frieze New York in May 2024 before traveling to Los Angeles’ Webber Gallery last year, the exhibition has made its way back to the Big Apply, finding a fitting home at ICP. With this presentation, Campany and Stern lean into the profound, tangible experience of photography, and the goal, per Stern’s recent blog post, is simple: “[To] make people want to print their pictures. Get off their phones. And go see art in person.”
The exhibition will be on view in New York through May 4. An accompanying HARD COPY zine is also available via Dashwood Books, ICP or the artist’s website.
Featured artists:
Daniel Arnold
David Black
John Divola
Zoë Ghertner
Takashi Homma
Jerry Hsu
Shaniqwa Jarvis
Ari Marcopoulos
Ryan McGinley
Asako Narahashi
Collier Schorr
Stephen Shore
Gray Sorrenti
Thomas Ruff
Andre D. Wagner
International Center of Photography
84 Ludlow Street,
New York, NY 10002
