AKU-2014-007

AKU Photo Archive (after Saul Leiter)

Initial Public Offering: Facebook, May 18, 2012

2012

C-print, diasec mounted

120 × 180 cm (Edition 3/5)

Acquisition

Purchased, 2014

Curator’s Note

The photograph was taken on the NASDAQ trading floor at 11:02 a.m. on May 18, 2012 — twenty-nine minutes after Facebook's delayed opening. The stock had been priced at $38; it opened at $42.05 and closed at $38.23. The photographer, working in the color-diffusion style of Saul Leiter, used a 50mm lens wide open. The reflections visible in the glass partition in the upper right show traders whose names were later associated with a class-action suit regarding the IPO's handling.

Exhibition

IPO: The Stock Market Listing as Spectacle