Erik Kessels Retrospective at Camera Torino Explores His Many Lives

Camera, the Italian Centre for Photography in Turin, presents 'The Many Lives of Erik Kessels', the first major retrospective of the Dutch artist (born 1966 in Roermond). Curated by Francesco Zanot, the exhibition surveys Kessels' mid-career success, accompanied by a retrospective catalogue published by Aperture in New York. A second iteration opens on 5 August at the Kulturzentrum NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf. Kessels is known for his installation '24hrs of Photos' (2011), which prints all images uploaded to Flickr in a single day—some 350,000 photos—spilling across gallery spaces. Visitors walk on, pick up, and reshuffle the prints. Another work, 'All Yours' (2015), displays his collection of vernacular photographs on rotating stands. Kessels works in series, notably 'in almost every picture' (2002–ongoing), which appropriates found photo albums: first, hundreds of snapshots of Josephina Iglesias taken by her husband; then a disabled woman photographed by a Danish taxi driver; later, 81-year-old Ria van Dijk, captured annually at a shooting range (except during WWII); and Jean-Paul Cuerrier's mascot pig at a Montreal restaurant. Kessels also creates his own photographs, such as 'My Family', close-ups of his children after minor accidents, and 'My Sister' (2002), a Super8 film of his sister playing ping-pong shortly before her death in 1977. 'My Photoalbum' (2007) explores the countless anonymous appearances of individuals in others' photos.