Throughout his 20-year career, Kessels has stood out as a major and unquestionable reference in the field of so-called "found photography".

Instead of taking new images, for most of his projects he collects pre-existing photographs and reuses them as pieces to form his own mosaic.

He is an artist without camera or lens: in his practice, photography is an element ready to be shown and recontextualised.

The result is a kind of ecosystem of images, through which nothing is added to the enormous quantity of images that now floods the world and grows exponentially day by day, but which, on the contrary, simply recovers and recycles what is already there.

In this workshop, Kessels will share with the participants ways of working with the re-appropriation of images and different types of narration with their own photographs.

Another fundamental theme of the workshop is reflection on the role of images in the times in which we live and how we can see them in ways other than simply consuming them.

He is an artist, curator and communication designer from the Netherlands with a special focus on photography. Since 1996 Erik Kessels has been a communications partner at the agency KesselsKramer in Amsterdam/London and has created campaigns for national and international clients such as Nike, Diesel, J&B Whisky, Oxfam, Vitra, Citizen M, I amsterdam and The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel.As an artist and curator, Kessels has published about 75 books of his 're-appropriated' images: 'Wonder' (2003), the collection 'in almost every picture' (2001-2019), 'Shit' (2018) and 'Read Naked' (2019).

Since 2000 he has been editor of an alternative photography magazine called "Useful Photography" and wrote the international bestseller "Failed It!" He has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam), Écal (Lausanne), Raffles (Milan) and the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture where he curated a celebration of amateur photography.

Kessels curated exhibitions such as Your Pictures, Mother Nature, 24HRS in Photos, Album Beauty, Unfinished Father and GroupShow. He also co-curated an exhibition called "From Here on" with Martin Parr, Joachim Schmid, Clement Cheroux and Joan Fontuberta.

In 2010 Kessels received the Amsterdam Prize of the Arts, in 2016 he was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. Since 2019 his Carrera retrospective has been shown in Turin, Düsseldorf, Budapest and in 2019 he exhibited at SFMOMA. He was called a "visual wizard" by Time Magazine and a "Modern Anthropologist" by Vogue (Italy).

Send to enlace@hydra.lat the registration form, minimum 15 and maximum 30 own and/or appropriate images (150 dpi approx. 1920px on the longest side, .jpg format or a PDF).

Each image must have the name of the author, surname and name of the series; example: Luis_Ruiz_paisajesperdidos-01.jpg and then attach them in a folder with the name of the author and the project. If you have an idea to develop during the workshop, send a description or proposal.

We offer 2 half scholarships. You can apply for them by sending us a letter explaining the reason for applying for the scholarship.

Ask about the payment facilities, grants and discounts we offer by writing to enlace@hydra.lat or calling 68199872.