AKU-2005-014

AKU Photo Archive (after Saul Leiter)

Initial Public Offering: Amazon, May 15, 1997

1997

C-print, vintage

100 × 150 cm (Edition 2/5)

Acquisition

Purchased, 2005

Curator’s Note

Amazon priced its IPO on May 15, 1997 at $18 per share, valuing the company at $438 million. The company had been selling books online for two years and had not yet turned a profit. The photograph was shot on Kodak Ektapress 400 film, which accounts for the warm grain visible in the shadow areas. A $1,000 investment made at the IPO price would be worth approximately $2.1 million at the time of this catalog's printing.

Exhibition

IPO: The Stock Market Listing as Spectacle