Over the past years, the artist Stefan Kuhn collected on numerous photographic journeys to distant lands banknotes from around the world. Only through close reading of both sides of the paper money, and viewing through the backlighting, he realized the diversity and uniqueness that carries each bill in itself. Mostly to be shown typical features such as colors, writings, people, landscapes or depicted historical events. Further features such as the security thread, the guilloche, or watermarks and holograms are usually between two sides of a bill. Based on this constellation was also the idea to arise the visual perception of a bill by an interplay of front, core and reverse into a new perspective. By the method of reproduction technology and the significant lighting of the photographer, the printed objects are lit in a way, that the original colors remain and the result represents a symbiosis of all specific quirks and characteristics of the bill. A currency is constantly changing. Through it´s status as means of payment, a bill often goes over decades through many hands. It meets with different cultures, crosses continents and even gets to know various layers of our society. During this period, the cash changes not only its outer appearance, but also the value. This is depending on various factors, such as the economic situation, the foreign trade or the political stability of a country subjected to a constant metamorphosis. Taking the time component of this historical photographic study, the exchange rate on each reproduction and the date of publication will be held compared with the current reserve currency for the following period. Currently there are 160 official currencies worldwide, each with 5-7 bills. For "The project banknotes", bills of all maintenance levels will be photographed. Both, "hot off the press" banknotes of active currencies, collectibles and historical commemorative notes or reprints in small print runs.
