in almost every picture.
We preserve beauty. We keep it in our minds, in our books, in our wallets, in our houses, in our drawers and in our photo albums. There is some instinctual need to reach out and try to capture what moves us visually and emotionally. It’s the allure of the way something or someone looks. We are all drawn to it in its wide and diverse manifestations. A movie star glimpses casually from the cover of a magazine. A child grows up over the period of many years. A loved one provides a familiar expression that reminds us of a time, a place and a feeling. We photograph it. The beauty of a Dalmatian, its physique and coloring and disposition, make her outstanding in almost every picture. Over the dog’s lifetime, her owners were fascinated with how photogenic she was. We see her in many locations as the central subject of the photographs. We look for her over and over again even when other people or dogs enter the frame. We watch as a beloved member of the family grows up and accompanies her owners in their lives together. She is part of the family, a beloved daughter. In between the color photographs is a series shot in black and white. This shows that the photographer considered the proper way to document this beauty. Was she more beautiful in black and white or in color? Well, there was only one way to find out. The result is a slightly different look at the Dalmatian in a black and white world, further testimony to the preciousness of her relationship to the owners. Someone who was cherished. But the phenomenon of her color was found to be perhaps more outstanding when set in a colorful environment. We often think of beauty as rare. But in photography, if it’s possible to have one, perfect image, it’s possible to try for another one. The multiplication of beauty in no way diminishes the rarity of it. We can increase the impact. We can revisit at any moment the great span of what delights our eye and our heart in almost every picture we make.
A KesselsKramer book. December 2006. Collected and edited by Erik Kessels and Marion Blomeyer. Designed by Erik Kessels. Words by Tyler Whisnand. Thanks to Martin Parr. Published by KesselsKramer Publishing, Lauriergracht 39, 1016 RG Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Publisher contact: Kyra Müller, kyra@kesselskramer.nl Distributed by Idea Books, idea@ideabooks.nl and Critiques Livres, critiques.livres@wanadoo.fr Pre-press by Edge Premedia. Binding by Hexpoor. Printed in Belgium by Die Keure, in an edition of 2,000 copies. www.kesselskramerpublishing.com ISBN-10: 90-70478-13-7 ISBN-13: 978-90-70478-13-1
If the photographs in “in almost every picture� belong to your family, they will be dutifully returned.