Edition 2013

Erik Kessels. Album Beauty

Album Beauty is an ode to the vanishing era of the photo album as told through the collection of Erik Kessels. Once commonplace in every home, the photo album has been replaced by the digital age where images live online and on hard drives. Photo albums were once a repository for family history, often representing a manufactured family as edited for display. They speak of birth, death, beauty, sexuality, pride, happiness, youth, competition, exploration, complicity, and friendship. Album Beauty is an exhibition about the visual anthropology of the photo album. Erik Kessels is a collector of vernacular photography and has spent many a Saturday at outdoor markets and junk stores collecting these amateur narratives. He is often drawn to their imperfections. These flawed exe- cutions and/or scared appearances of old age tell another part of their story. According to Kessels: ‘A long and dedicated search through photo albums will occasionally reveal something less than perfection, something other than an entry in the competition to appear normal. And in these cracks, beauty may be found.’

Erik Kessels

Exhibition curated by Erik Kessels in collaboration with FOAM Amsterdam and Roland Bushmann.
Wallpaper by Oschatz Visuelle, Wiesbaden.
With the support of Oh ! Pays-Bas.
Exhibition venue: Palais de l’Archevêché.

  • Institutional partners

    • République Française
    • Région Provence Alpes Côté d'Azur
    • Département des Bouches du Rhône
    • Arles
    • Le Centre des monuments nationaux est heureux de soutenir les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles en accueillant des expositions dans l’abbaye de Montmajour
  • Main partners

    • Fondation LUMA
    • BMW
    • SNCF
    • Kering
  • Media partners

    • Arte
    • Lci
    • Konbini
    • Le Point
    • Madame Figaro
    • France Culture