Failed it!

Erik Kessels is Creative Director and Co-Founder of KesselsKramer, an independent, communications agency with offices in Amsterdam, London and Los Angeles. As an artist and photography collector Kessels has published several books of his found photography: Missing Links (1999), In Almost Every Picture vol.1–15 (2001–2015) and Wonder (2006). He writes regularly for numerous international magazines and he is editor of the alternative photography magazine Useful Photography. In 2012 he lectured at the D&AD Presidents Lecture and has given talks at several international design conferences, including Singapore, Goa, New York, Toronto and Bangkok. He has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture, where he also curated a celebration of amateurism. In 2010 Kessels was awarded with the Amsterdam Prize of the Arts and in 2012 he was named the most influential creative of The Netherlands.

"A concise manifesto on how consistent failure, or by embracing imperfection, you can question possibilities and the status quo."—ItsNiceThat.com"A wonderfully imperfect collection of photos and pearls of wisdom" —Sweet"Work by expert photographers capturing serendipitous absurdities alongside found photos of real #fails" —Guardian"An impassioned plea on behalf of the importance of making mistakes in creativity. Part photobook, part manifesto... imperfection and failure are something to be celebrated" —Crafts"[A] pocket-size pep talk that you can pull out whenever you’ve accidentally shoved your finger in front of the viewfinder of an important moment" —Dazeddigital.com"Packed with over 150 tips, quotes and anecdotes about imperfection in creative disciplines" —House Seven"Kessels highlights the illogical, and humorous, design mishaps which break up the banality of our urban surroundings" —New Design"In his light-hearted look at failure in image-making, Kessels argues that the artists who work with trickery and imperfections should challenge received perceptions about mistakes" —BBC.com"[Kessels has] been recognised for his astounding ability to establish narrative themes through found imagery... Failed It! is a fine example of such skill" —AnOtherMag.com"The path to invention, Kessels seems to suggest, is one that can be paved with mistakes. And some bloody good laughs along the way" —Creative Review"[Kessels] shows how mistakes can be turned into ideas, and failure into success" —Financial Times Weekend"When you give someone a book about how to "screw things up successfully", you admittedly run the risk that they'll take it the wrong way. That said, once they've dippid into Kessel's lively celebration of the slip-up, forgiveness is bound to follow. Deserving of a place on bookshelves for its humorous photography alone."Crafts"The pictures in Failed It!... Feel novel."Wired Online