Like Schmid, Dutch designer, curator and artist Erik Kessels has worked with the found vernacular image for many years. Similarly to Schmid, Kessels began to collect amateur photographs – mainly discarded photograph albums – from second hand markers across Europe. In his highly influential series of projects, he presents various series of found images in book form. Most remarkable from this series is book #7, which shows a series of photographs taken of a young girl from age 16 through to old age, as she made annual visits to a fairground shooting range in the Netherlands.
‘ In almost every picture #7 tells the story of a Dutch woman whose life is seen from the point of view of a fairground shooting gallery. The chronological series begins in 1936, when a 16 year old girl from Tilburg in Holland picks up a gun and shoots at the target in a shooting gallery. Every time she hits the target, it triggers the shutter of a camera and a portrait of the girl in firing pose is taken and given as a prize.
And so a lifelong love affair with the shooting gallery begins. This series documents almost very year of the woman’s life ( there is a conspicuous pause from 1939 to 1945 ) up until present times. At the age of 88, Ria Van Dijk still makes her pilgrimage to the shooting gallery. In almost every picture #7, is a biography of one woman’s life from an unusual perspective, one which allows us to witness the times she lived in, as well as acting as a revealing look at the changing face of photography through the decades.’ [1]
The other books in Kessel’s In Almost Every Picture series focus on different themes: a family’s pictures of its Dalmatian dog #5, a woman’s record of 60 years of passport pictures #6, a collection of shots of a woman taken by her husband on holiday in Barcelona #1. In #13, in every shot, a thumb occludes the frame. It seems that even our mistakes are predictably similar.
Kessels believes that ‘mistakes’ are important in photography.
- Read Tim Clark’s interview with Erik Kessels on the vanishing photo album
http://time.com/3801986/the-vanishing-art-of-the-family-photo-album/
“Family or personal photographs are now taken to be shared with everybody whereas in the era of photo albums they used to be much more private….We used to be the designers of our photo memories, not just someone who makes a slideshow on a computer. We don’t even have them in albums anymore. The function of a photograph has shifted completely…It’s extraordinary to think that photo albums have only been in existence for roughly one hundred, and now they’re virtually dead.” [2]
I couldn’t agree more with what Kessels talks about in this interview. Nowadays, our ‘photograph album’ are folders on our mobile phones. Sometimes we transfer them onto the computer, or other devices, but we rarely print them into hard copies. Perhaps this is because we take so many on our phones, if we were to print them all, we wouldn’t have the space to put the large photograph albums. For me, I relate more to how Kessels views things. Although I myself don’t print every photograph I have taken digitally, I do have hard copies in photograph albums. My own personal opinion regarding owning hard copies of photographs, is I dread the thought of loosing the photograph forever. I have digital copies of old family photographs, of friends and family members who have passed away, just in case anything happens to the original hard copies. I also think that with experiencing Dementia first hand, the thought of loosing memories forever frightens me somewhat, as I couldn’t imagine if I couldn’t remember the memories I have or people in the photographs. Keeping photograph albums for me, gives me a sort of security, knowing that if anything happens in the future, I will always have a book, to hold on to, to look through my memories, to help me remember.
Schmid also said that he noticed we spend more time viewing books, than we do slide shows of photographs. If this is the case, then why don’t we keep photograph albums any more? Anything can happen to technology, memory cards can delete themselves, computers can die, thus meaning our digital photograph albums may be wiped completely. I understand that people don’t want to store photograph albums in their houses anymore, due to sizes and space, but surely, if you wanted to keep your memories safe, this shouldn’t be an issue?
He also talks about how family photograph albums used to be more private, and were only shown if you went around someone’s house, whereas nowadays, family albums are uploaded onto social media, and are shared. I however, tend to not do this, as I keep my social media quite simple and quite in regards to my personal life and photographs, other than ones I took when I was at school etc, with friends. I don’t really want the world seeing my family albums online.
Kessels also goes on to talk about how we only tend to keep 8 photograph albums within our lifetime, and explains how peoples life journeys can be seen moving through each. We can see how towards the end of the 7th and 8th, we tended to stop taking photographs as in other words ‘ peoples lives got boring’. We experienced the highs but once they had been and gone, the types of photographs changed and the amount of photographs taken also slowly declined, until none were taken. I wonder if this will be the same with photographs we take on our mobile phones. I think age may have something to do with it. I used to take loads of photographs on my mobile phone when I was at school with friends, whereas now, I have slowly stopped taking so many, and the ones I do aren’t shared on social media as much, if at all. Whereas my Mum and Aunty take even less photographs on their phones than I do, as they tend to live in the moment, rather than worrying about taking a photograph of it, but I like to photograph something, so we can all remember it.
References:
Kessels, Erik.
[1] https://www.lensculture.com/articles/erik-kesselskramer-a-lifetime-of-self-portraits-at-a-shooting-gallery ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )
[2] Quotes taken directly from The Vanishing Art of the Family Photo Album article.
http://time.com/3801986/the-vanishing-art-of-the-family-photo-album/ ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/sdaniel/public_record/OkwuiEnzewor_archiveFever_photographyBetweenHistoryAndTheMonument.pdf ( Accessed 28/02/2018 )
Chantelle Grace Photography 