Poor Power Images in the Work of Hito Steyerl

In 2009 German video artist, documentary filmmaker and essayist Hito Steyerl releases her essay In Defense of the Poor Image. Her definition of the ‘poor’ image as “a copy in motion” can be transferred to contemporary mostly digital images in general. But with the new image technologies the artist diagnoses a replacement of poor images by power images, in the multiple meanings of the word ‘power’. In contrast to the proclaimed shift from poor images to power images the author rather speaks about poor power images. Instead of a replacement of poor images by power images one can observe poor images unfolding their powers while power images show various shades of poorness.