Boaz Levin is a curator and co-head of exhibitions at C/O Berlin. Together with Esther Ruelfs, he co-curated *Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production* (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg in 2022, Kunst Haus Wien, and Gewerbemuseum Winterthur in 2023).
By adopting a materialist and environmental approach to the history of photography, the exhibition revisits the invention of photography in the 19th century, which did not merely coincide with the emergence of fossil capitalism but was intimately linked to it. From its very inception, photography has depended on—and contributed to—global trade and the extraction of so-called natural resources, the search for cheap labor, and the production of waste.
During this discussion, Boaz Levin reflects on the exhibition, its origins, and the questions it raises today amid the race for rare earth metals. How does mining continue to influence technology? How do artists intervene in this process?
Boaz Levin is a writer, curator, occasional filmmaker, and co-director of programming at C/O Berlin, based in Berlin. Together with Hito Steyerl and Vera Tollmann, he founded the Research Center for Proxy Politics. He co-curated the 2017 Biennale für Aktuelle Fotografie in Heidelberg, Mannheim, and Ludwigshafen, as well as the third Chennai Photography Biennale in 2021. In 2022, he co-organized the exhibition *Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production*, which opened at the MK&G in Hamburg before touring several other venues, followed by *Image Ecology* at C/O Berlin in 2023. In 2024, he organized, together with Annette Hausschild, the exhibition *Träum Weiter – Berlin, die 90er* at C/O Berlin, which attracted more than 140,000 visitors. More recently, in 2026, he curated the exhibition *Dörte Eißfeldt: Archipelago*.
His writings have been published in *Texte zur Kunst*, *Camera Austria*, *Frieze*, and *Cabinet Magazine*. From 2020 to 2023, he served as editor-in-chief of *Cabinet Magazine*’s online platform, “Kiosk.”
Photo credit: “Mining Photography. The Ecological Footprint of Image Production” exhibition © Henning Rogge
