Happy Cash

Happy Cash – 'When cash connects people'

Where lies the future of cash? How does paper currency stack up against online payment, bitcoin and a plethora of other crypto-assets?

CashEssentials sought answers to these questions and asked Wipplay to launch a photography contest that would not only shed light on the future of cash but also portray money in its most tangible form.

Banknotes, coins… we are confronted by cash wherever we go. Cash is subject to all sorts of different connotations, and this plurality was reflected in each of the thousands of photos submitted for competition. But what do the photographs portray? Enlargements of coins and banknotes, price labels, questionable scruples, etc.

Cash is connected to all people and things, cascading around the world like a great current, flowing from one person to the next. The competition’s judge panel consisted of Erick Lacourrège (The Bank of France), Manuela Pfrunder (banknote designer), Päivi Heikkinen (The Bank of Finland), Sam Stourdzé (director of the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival) and photographers Émile Loreaux and Philippe Assalit. Together, they chose the best photos, a selection of which are now presented in this exhibition.

CashEssentials is a platform for debate about payments and monetary ecosystems. Wipplay  is a photography start-up based in France.

The exhibition will run from 9 October 2018 to 2 June 2019. Exhibition image gallery.

(c) Donovan Heneman