How to Win at Photography exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery critiques digital culture through play

The exhibition How to Win at Photography at The Photographers' Gallery presents works exploring connections between visual culture and play, though the show's framing feels outdated according to the critic. Featuring artists like Cory Arcangel, Aram Bartholl, Justin Berry, Tabor Robak, Constant Dullaart, and Petra Szemán, the exhibition includes pieces such as Arcangel's Super Mario Landscape 1 (2005) and Dullaart's High Retention, Slow Delivery (2014). Historical photography by Cindy Sherman and Ed Ruscha is also displayed, with Ruscha's Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963) influencing Lorna Ruth Galloway's drawings of virtual gasoline stations from Grand Theft Auto. The exhibition runs through 25 September. The critic notes the absence of contemporary platforms like Twitch and PlayStation, while highlighting works like Dries Depoorter and Max Pinckers's Trophy Camera v0.9 (2017), which uses machine learning to tag press photos. A photo of an egg from the @world_record_egg Instagram account, with 56 million likes, is presented as a symbol of networked image value. The show's guide mentions the internet only once, and the critic argues it fails to adequately address how digital tools shape society and enable resistance.