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ERAS/1990–2000s·Globalization, the Internet, and the Photobook Renaissance·UPDATED 2026.05
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ERA · 09 · Globalization and Digitalization
1990
§ — Era Index

1990–2000s

Globalization, the Internet, and the Photobook Renaissance

1990–2000s was shaped by Globalization, the Internet, and the Post-Cold War Era, a context in which photographic institutions and expression changed significantly. This era page organizes photographers, movements, and historical background so readers can trace how Conceptual Art emerged within a wider history of photography. Use it as a chronological entry point from individual photographers to related countries, visual languages, and source-backed historical context.

Photographers 8Period 1990–2000sMovements 5Vol ERA · 09
Overview

Digitalization challenged photography's evidentiary status. The photobook was revived as an art form. Japanese photography continued to produce distinctive work in the aftermath of economic collapse. Photography's global canon began to be expanded and revised.

What This Era Changed

Digitalization in the 1990s did not immediately destroy the photograph but made its evidential status uncertain — initiating a long debate about authenticity, manipulation, and the grounds on which a photograph can be trusted.

§ CTXContext of This Era
Politics & Society

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of the Cold War reorganized the global order, while the Rwandan genocide (1994) and Balkan Wars exposed the limits of humanitarian intervention. The internet began to transform how information and images circulated.

Digitalization

The 1990s were a decade in which digital photography became established. The spread of Adobe Photoshop (from 1990), early digital cameras, and CD-ROM image distribution challenged the evidentiary status of photographs. Debates about image manipulation and authenticity intensified.

Photobook Renaissance

The 1990s saw a significant revival of the photobook as an art form, with small publishers, artists' books, and self-published editions gaining critical attention. Bookshops like Printed Matter in New York and dedicated photobook fairs helped build an international community of collectors and practitioners.

Japanese Photography in the 1990s

Japan's economic bubble burst in 1991, and the decade of stagnation that followed produced a distinctive photographic culture of interiority, obsession, and documentary intimacy. Photographers such as Rinko Kawauchi, Hiroh Kikai, and Daido Moriyama continued to develop Japanese photography's international presence.

§ PHPhotographers of This Era