Erik Kessels
In Almost Every Picture #10 ()
Erik Kessels
In Almost Every Picture #10
In Almost Every Picture is a series of books and exhibitions by Erik Kessels featuring found, often amateur, photographs. The tenth installment shows old images, unearthed by photographer Michel Campeau, of pigs being bottle-fed by customers in a Montreal restaurant. Photo after photo, customers hold a piglet on their lap or on their table, caressing it or pretending to eat it. The series, begun in 1938 by a local photographer, continued for thirty- five years, amassing thousands of images. It is obsessive, the images are repetitive, the variations in angle or composition minimal. In one night, the photographer would have taken 250 shots. Beyond the dubious entertainment, there remains an obvious and disturbing question: what happened to the pigs?
Born in 1966, the artist and designer Erik Kessels lives and works in Amsterdam. He is known for his experimental use of found photography. He reappropriates images, giving them new meaning. He has published more than 75 books of his ‘reappropriated’ images. Erik Kessels’ chosen images are so awkward, strange or human that you have to smile in appreciation – for we are all amateur photographers. In Almost Every Picture #10, by Erik Kessels and Michel Campeau, was published by Kesselskramer in 2011.