Loving Your Pictures Erik Kessels Vernacular Photography

Eric Kessels

'Loving Your Pictures' is the title of Amsterdam-based Creative Director Erik Kessels' exhibition at Arles. Something of an avid photography collector, clearly possessed with an eye for an image and a story beyond the image, Kessels' found photographic material is certainly not short on creativity. The collection, described as 'vernacular photography', brings together a series of pictures with new meanings outside their original and intended purpose.

Ubiquitous, amateur photographic accidents are imbued with an added charm: unwitting background characters from holiday snaps are turned into the subject matter of their own portraits; accidental double exposures superimpose one image on top of another; and old photo collections, rescued from the fleamarket, tell a new story, albeit simply from the repeated appearance of a dalmation or old Dutch lady in a black taxi. Click here to see a gallery of pictures from the exhibition.

'In almost every picture 1'

This series of found pictures shows a Spanish lady photographed over the course of many years by her husband. When the series was part of an exhibition in Barcelona, the images appeared on the news and in Spanish newspapers. A woman who had previously worked with the lady in the photographs at Telefonica came forward and revealed that she was called Josephina Aparicio Iglesias, that she had passed away and had no children. Click on the image above to view the series.

'In almost every picture 2'

Telling the story of one woman's travels around Europe from the front seat of a black taxi, this series has an air of poignancy. The taxi driver, A.J.Paetzhold took all the images except the final one in the series, taken of him by the lady from her front seat. The pictures came into Kessels' possession via the Dutch photogrpaher Andrea Stultiens, neighbours of the Paetzholds in the Dutch city of Nijmegen. When Paetzhold's wife passed away, Andrea helped clear out the house and was given a collection of images, which were subsequently given to Kessels. On closer inspection Kessels discovered the lady in the photographs (also from Nijmegen and since passed away) was disabled, hence unable to get out of the taxi on her travels. Click on the image above to view the series.

'In almost every picture 3'

The pictures in this series are in fact self-portarits of the deer.The pictures were taken by a camera with a motion detector placed on trees in the forests, enabling the hunters to monitor the deer population. Kessels contacted an association of hunters in America who had posted images of the deer on the internet. Click on the image above to view the series.

'In almost every picture 4'

Kessels rescued this collection of photographs from a Brussels fleamarket. Taken on The Ramblas in Barcelona by professional photographers who snapped people on the streets, the twins always appear arm-in-arm in the same position. From the dates of the photogrpahs, Kessels concludes that one of the twins died by the end of the Second World War. In the subsequent images it appears a sif a space has been left open for her by the remaining twin. Click on the image above to view the series.

'In almost every picture 5'

These pictures were given to Kessels by his German friend and collaborator Marion Blomeyer. The beloved dalmation forms the link in each photograph, but nothing else other than its German nationality is known. Click on the image above to view the series.

'Strangers in my photo albums'

The ubiquitous people in the background of Kessels' photographs have been given their own moment in the limelight in this series. By cropping out the main subject of each image, and making the background figures the main focus Kessels has produced a series of images with a humorous, voyeuristic quality.Click on the image above to view the series.

'Wonder series'

Formed from reject photographs, Kessels has imbued these unlikely images with a significance beyond the accidental double exposures or unfortunate compositions we've all experienced, but are slowly dying out with the ruthless efficiency of digital photography. Click on the image above to see the series. Read more about Found Photography ...

Loving Your Pictures
Erik Kessels

Een vrouw die in een zwierige bloemetjesrok en hemdje in een zonnig landschap zit en in het water staart. Een stoere politieman die er toch een beetje onhandig bij staat. Een hert in een bos, met verschrikte ogen vastgenageld in fel flitslicht. Het zijn maar een paar voorbeelden van het fotomateriaal dat werd gevonden en verzameld door Erik Kessels.

In Loving Your Picturesis een aantal van die foto’s van anonieme fotografen gebundeld. Ze werden door de oorspronkelijke makers nooit bedoeld als kunstwerken – het zijn kiekjes zoals we die allemaal wel eens maken –, maar ze krijgen in deze context een heel nieuwe betekenis. Door de manier waarop Erik Kessels ze gebruikt roepen ze vragen op over originaliteit en de definitie van beeldende kunst. Dit is volkomen nieuw voor Nederland.

Loving Your Pictures is een uniek boekje met ansichtkaarten van gevonden foto’s, die, als je ze als kaart gebruikt, nog weer een nieuw, onvermoed leven kunnen gaan leiden. Behalve een tekst van Erik Kessels zelf bevat het boekje een beschouwing van Pauline Terreehorst.