We live in an era where most of the tools we use are very close to perfection. Computers, cell phones, applications and navigation systems do not make mistakes.

Perfection is not really the best starting point for creating new ideas, so sometimes going into error and from there creating new ideas is actually a good thing. Society has taught us to avoid mistakes, but for creative and innovative people, mistakes are essential.

Erik Kessels will talk about his book: Failed it! and how mistakes inspire him and he uses them as a fundamental part of his work processes.

A photobook editing and photo production workshop will force participants to fail and create errors.

"Failure is important. If you're not ready to humiliate yourself, make mistakes and be completely screwed up, you should consider working in an office, it's safer there. Because as a creative, you should at least be called an idiot once a day, that's fine. Making mistakes and failing is a way to get ahead. Without that, you'll be stuck in the same old comfort zone. In other words: bored. So, if we want to do that thing we love so much, do interesting, creative things, we need to get rid of our need not to fail. 

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).