Image Tsunami

de Erik Kessels

Erik Kessels' multivolume "In Almost Every Picture" has long been a coveted and revered classic of vernacular photography. In "Erik Kessels: Image Tsunami" the Dutch art director has turned his attention to the abundance of images available for finding on the Internet, shared in their millions on websites like Flickr. In a world where everyone produces and edits photography, where, as Kessels says, "the average kid today gets photographed more than a celebrity of 50 years ago," what does a single image mean, and what is its status in the overwhelming flood of images? In Kessels' words: "Image Tsunami" holds an enormous collection of images that I live with, that I remix and edit. It's a representation of the overload of imagery that is in my head. My hope is that the book will inspire others to make their own remixes of these images."