[1] It is also a part of a series that the artist made on the subject of stock exchanges and board of trades across the world, since 1990.
Similarly to others of his pictures, this one was taken from a high point of view, allowing a broader vision of the board of trade.
In this original version, the space depicted is larger, showing the surrounding area, including the balconies and some of the walls, of the Chicago Board of Trade, while its center, famously named "the pit", bursts with a colourful number of people, who are the stockbrokers, apparently in a typical business day.
[4] The Christie's website stated:" As in all of Gursky's greatest works, Chicago Board of Trade creates an intriguing synthesis between the macro and the micro scales: we can see each face, each movement, each moment preserved in this photograph, order seemingly emerging from chaos.
Gursky, watching over this scene from an almost scientific perspective, (...) has immortalized and even celebrated the people and the mass to which they belong, capturing fleeting beauty as glimpsed at the heart of the hustle and bustle of contemporary, capitalist life.