The Vanishing Art of the Family Photo Album

5 minute read
Courtesy of Erik Kessels
By Tim Clark

“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.” So explains Dutch curator and editor Erik Kessels, otherwise known for his work at the legendary and unorthodox advertising agency, KesselsKramer. “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 any more. The function of a photograph has shifted completely.”

There’s been no shortage of reflections on how we are living in a time when once-familiar objects are disappearing rapidly from our lives yet Kessels’ exhibition, Album Beauty, provides a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of obsolescence. Currently on display at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France, it is an ode to the lost world of the photo album, that container of family history and personal narratives. Comprising found and anonymous family photographs, it is the result of nearly 15 years spent rummaging through flea markets and second-hand stores across the globe.

Installation view of Album Beauty at Les Rencontres d’Arles, 2013.Agathe Lacoste

“It’s extraordinary to think that photo albums have only been in existence for roughly one hundred years, and now they are virtually dead,” Kessels says. Presented as an installation, the experience of Album Beauty is akin to walking through a physical photo album. Images are blown up to epic size and displayed as wallpaper, while others are shown in their original format. There are also interactive albums to leaf through, life-size photo props that visitors can put their face into, and photographs printed on carpets that visitors walk over. Kessels’ curatorial practice is one of constant carnival.

Yet beyond the nostalgic pleasure drawn from these pre-digital images, Album Beauty achieves a certain gravitas through the glimpses it offers into the human condition. While there are no critically important pictures here they are nonetheless glorious in their dullness. In a sense then, it’s a form of archaeology that lists the detritus of beauty, boredom, travel, companionship, innocence, youth, pride and participation.

“I am very interested in the certain typologies that you might find within albums,” Kessels explains via telephone from his office, a converted church in the heart of Amsterdam. “For instance, people make mostly on average 7 or 8 albums during their lifetime. The first is always when a couple meet each other, they’re in love and they go on holiday etc.”

Noting how analogue family photography was a largely engendered pursuit, he adds: “It was mostly men taking pictures of their partners. It was them who had the machine around their neck. For instance, in [the album labeled “Helene”], the man is taking close ups of her excessively. Even his girlfriend’s name is written in large lettering. You can tell he considers her an adorable, desired object.

“The second album that was made is mostly related to the marriage. You see this phenomenon all over the world, in all kinds of countries. The third one is usually totally dedicated to and fanatical about the first-born child. The fresh parents just can’t show it off enough. When people can’t have children then they focus their album on other things such as dogs. When there are no children and no dogs, they opt for the car. What else is there to photograph?”

As for the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh albums, he says: “They’re a complete mix of everything; more new children, holidays, important occasions etc, so it’s total chaos, with blank pages and all.”

And in the eighth? “The eighth is comparable to the first. The couple are together, alone again because the kids have gone to university or left home. However, you can observe that the woman usually appears smaller in the frame, either because the man loses interest, she doesn’t want to be photographed or due to the fact that he’s more interested in the surrounding landscape.”

Kessels is finely attuned to the voice of propaganda that rings sternly through out family photography, though he notes that this idea is not just specific to physical albums but is also present via avatars and profiles on Facebook, MobileMe, or Instagram, for example, in which people present carefully constructed images of themselves. Largely radiating happiness, such platforms allow for an all too perfect distillation of life, he says: the best situations, the best smiles, the sunniest of days.

Yet Kessels clearly has little concern for the neatly pruned. Instead, he actively seeks out the dissonant, the banal, and most crucially, the disruption to ritualised harmony within family photography. “A long and dedicated search through photo albums will occasionally reveal something less than perfection,” he says. “Something other than an entry in the competition to appear normal. And in these cracks, beauty may be found.”

As such, imperfection gets its dues. Whether this manifests itself in ill-shaped yawns, awkward poses or technical mistakes such as poor lighting, exposure, and red eye, or more adventurous examples that include grooms maliciously cut out of photographs, Album Beauty demonstrates, in the words of Kessels, how “the so-called ‘errors’ can reveal the truth.”

Erik Kessels is a Dutch curator and editor. He is a founder of the advertising agency KesselsKramer.

Tim Clark is the Editor-in-Chief and Director of 1000 Words Photography Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @1000wordsmag.

The following captions were provided by Erik Kessels. This is an example of mutilation in a family album.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
This album from India has been perforated by bugs eating through it over time.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
This is an example of a ‘first’ photo album. True devotion to a young love...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
It features excessive photographs of a girlfriend on holiday.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Early family albums are almost always dedicated to the marriage...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... and the first newborn.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
This is a period in family albums that reflects the chaos of children growing up, going to school, sports events, holidays, etc. They show only the good times, the smiles, the sunny days.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Hidden behind the smiling faces are all those troublesome emotions that comprise so much of what it means to be human.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
In the U.S. in the 70s and 80s, albums became very chaotic and messy due to the overload of images and variety of photographic formats.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Inside these archaic homemade books, you’d find a wealth of glorious imagery, and a morass of dull snaps. Courtesy of Erik Kessels
When no children are born, or children have left home, you see albums with excessive amounts of photographs of cats...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... or dogs...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... or cars. Courtesy of Erik Kessels
I am very interested in certain typologies that you might find within albums. It’s a form of archaeology.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Swiss albums are usually very organized.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
They can be identified by their crayon lines drawn in to write captions on, and photographs that are glued in patterns.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
These are photographs of amateur home entertainment.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
An endless parade of positive vibes unspoiled by jealousy, hate, boredom, sadness.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
At first, you think this album is about one girl...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... but after looking more closely it turns out to be about two girls.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Albums were sometimes used by people to collect their own portrait over the years...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... or used to collect multiple images of one person or event. In the case of this album, photographs of a woman with a blue umbrella.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
These albums are scrapbooks in which photographs were used to illustrate the pages.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
A spread of figures painstakingly cut out and pasted on a blank background, bereft of environments and context, floating in a scrapbook void.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
These are examples of studio photographs from Russia...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... and India.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Not only is the family photo album disappearing...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
... studio and portrait photography is vanishing as well.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Albums are generally very boring, but the lack of creativity sometimes turns into something very nice. This is an album featuring photographs of a living room...Courtesy of Erik Kessels
This album features photographs of a visit to a flower garden.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
This album features photographs of people testing a new bed.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Analog images are subject to decay from exposure to weather and light.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
In this portrait from India, poor development of the photograph has given it a special effect, a real album beauty.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Unwanted family members are cut out.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
A woman in a wedding dress has cut herself loose from her divorced husband. The arm of her husband is still part of her.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Women are a very popular subject in all family albums.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Though the older they become, the further they tend to disappear into the background and thus become smaller in the image.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Does the photographer lose interest his subject, or has his attention been captured by the surroundings?Courtesy of Erik Kessels
The all-time classic mistake: a finger in front of the lens.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
Another beautiful mistake is opening the camera while the roll of film is still in it. Nowadays we use applications on our phones to deliberately mess up our photographs in such ways.Courtesy of Erik Kessels
We find many reasons to study the fading glory of the family photo album and find unexpected beauty in a dying form of folk art.Courtesy of Erik Kessels

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