New York—In today’s inundated image landscape, the practice of visual consumption has radically transformed. Erik Kessels’s varied experiments—both with photography and photographic archives—have continuously pushed the medium’s vernacular and narrative possibilities in the contemporary photographic conversation. At the center of Kessels’s explorations are concepts of the shifting role of photography in our daily lives, and how we look, consume, and contribute to the visual masses. The Many Lives of Erik Kessels presents the highly anticipated first illustrated survey of this pioneering and influential curator, editor, and artist. Corresponding to the multiplicity of Kessels’s practice, the book and slipcase set is available in 20 randomized combinations. Featuring more than 20 series and over 450 photographs from Kessels’s archive, as well as essays by Simon Baker, Hans Aarsman, Sandra S. Phillips, and curator Francesco Zanot, this fun and eclectic volume brings together the immense career of this artist who defies categorization.

Erik Kessels is a highly influential photography collector, curator, editor, and designer recently acclaimed for his own artistic practice. Creative director of the communications agency KesselsKramer, founded in 1995, Kessels has published more than fifty books of collected images, including Missing Links (1999), The Instant Men (2000), the in almost every picture series (2001–ongoing), and Wonder (2006). Since 2000, he has been an editor of the alternative photography magazine Useful Photography, and has curated exhibitions such as Loving Your Pictures (2008), 24hrs of photos (2010), Album Beauty (2012), and Unfinished Father (2015). In 2011, he co-curated an exhibition called From Here On together with Martin Parr, Joachim Schmid, Clément Chéroux, and Joan Fontcuberta. In 2010, Kessels was awarded the prestigious Amsterdam Prize of the Arts, and in 2016 he was a finalist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for his exhibition Unfinished Father.