Barbara Kruger "'Taking' Pictures" 1982

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (I shop therefore I am), 1987

I'm not sure that I really understand what Kruger is trying to say in this excerpt but I will try to summarize it simply nonetheless.  First she identifies a couple opposing practices/forces that she sees in art: studio work and more reproductive work (such as photography).  She looks further at this more reproductive work and observes that is used by many artists.  By taking a picture, these artists use the original meaning of the image and distort it or comment on it by how the picture is taken.  They are informed by fashion photography, media imagery, film, television, etc.  These types of works also "question ideas of competence, originality, authorship and property."  However, these types of works can also be cliche and may only add an additional version of an already repetitive, stereotyped image.