Despite its apparent throwaway status the stock image comprises the primary commodity of a billiondollar global industry with farreaching effects in the marketplace and the public sphere. Taking this overlooked facet of contemporary life as a point of departure Ordinary Pictures explores the photographic apparatuses and commercial interests that have given rise to our generic image culture through the conceptual imagebased work of some 40 artists including John Baldessari Steven Baldi Sarah Charlesworth Anne Collier Liz Deschenes John Divola Aleksandra Domanovic HansPeter Feldmann Morgan Fisher Hollis Frampton Jack Goldstein Rachel Harrison Robert Heinecken Leslie Hewitt Elad Lassry Louise Lawler Sherrie Levine Steve McQueen Jack Pierson Peter Piller Seth Price Amanda Rossotto Ed Ruscha Steven Shore Sturtevant Mungo Thomson Wolfgang Tillmans Tseng Kwong Chi Julia Wachtel and Christopher Williams. Spanning generations movements and artistic strategies from the 1960s to the present day this publication brings together works by artists who have probed mimicked and critiqued this aspect of our visual environment as well as its industrial modes of production and distribution.