Making mistakes: We all do it, but nobody likes it. Photographer Arjan Verschoor thinks we could also change that approach. In his lecture ‘Mislukkingen in de fotografie’ (Photographic Failures), he exhibits his failed photographs and actually shows the resulting beauty in them.
On a sun-drenched Sunday afternoon, photographer Arjan Verschoor is busy setting up his laptop and projector for his lecture at Wall House #2 in which he talks about failures in photography. The installation won't work, the projectors having issues and the laptop won't cooperate. ‘I had everything prepared on my Mac G4, an antique, and it always worked.’ Unfortunately, the laptop died before the lecture and he had to make do with a PC, which took some getting used to. He can laugh about it: it fits the theme of the lecture.
Spread out on the table in the centre of the room are several photographs, all of which were failures in some way. Some were scratched during development or the glass plate broke. But it does not bother Verschoor — quite the contrary. ‘I embrace failed photographs," he says, and this immediately sets the tone for the lecture.
WANTING TO IMITATE THE GREATS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
The examples on the table were shot analogue, a fondness of Verschoor's. He also photographs analogue, with an old-fashioned plate camera to boot. He learned how to work with a camera like that at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (University of the Arts) in Utrecht, where he studied photography. But things still sometimes go wrong when developing his photos. ‘With a plate camera, you only have one shot, so it has to work all at once. That’s much more tense,’ he explains. Fascinated by the perfectionist works of photographers Ansel Adams and Richard Avedon, he tried to imitate these greats. This did not always work out, and one photo after another went from the darkroom to the bin. But his interest in failed photos was really sparked when he worked at a photo shop, where he developed film rolls and saw how many photos had failed. Instead of faults, he saw stories in them and embraced the imperfections.
PERFECTION GETS BORING
During the lecture, Verschoor will show a selection of photographs by different photographers, all of whom were known for their penchant for mistakes. One such photographer is Gerard Fieret. The Hague-based photographer and artist stood out because he did not follow the rules of photography very closely. His photos were often overexposed or otherwise ‘wrong’. It illustrates Verschoor's fascination, especially as such photographs are far removed from the work of his heroes from his student days.
Verschoor also shows his own work. Most photos are accidental failures caused by things like errors in the development process. This yields special pictures and makes each one unique. The idea of presenting the failed photographs to a wider audience came from those around him. ‘People said: I see something in your photos, you don't have a photoshop filter for that,’ Verschoor says. ‘It really is something analogue, something magical.’ Perfect photographs sometimes get boring, he feels. So his motto is to embrace failure: he wants his photos to fail even better. He says with a laugh: ‘No one makes mistakes like I do.’
SHOWING IMPERFECTIONS ON INSTAGRAM
In any case, perfection is wasted on Verschoor. As such, he has no use for the perfect world people try to create on media like Instagram. Using the medium that lends itself perfectly to perfection, he started a small countermovement and likes pushing back. He scans his failed photos and posts them with the hashtag #filmisnotdead. Verschoor has since gathered a club of fellow photographers doing the same. ‘I like to show imperfection on Instagram,’ he says. ‘Kind of pushing back against that lifestyle stuff: I always find that so plasticky. I like to show something real.’
He does admit to putting a filter over his scanned analogue photos when he posts them on Instagram. ‘Then they become a bit Instagrammy,’ he says with a laugh. ‘Really beautiful failures.’