“24 hours in photos” is an installation by Erik Kessels as part of an exhibition at Foam in Amsterdam. The exhibition looks at the future of photography. The installation features print outs of every image uploaded to Flikr in a 24 hour period.
Kessels’ says “We’re exposed to an overload of images nowadays. This glut is in large part the result of image-sharing sites like Flickr, networking sites like Facebook, and picture-based search engines. Their content mingles public and private, with the very personal being openly and un-selfconsciously displayed. By printing all the images uploaded in a 24-hour period, I visualise the feeling of drowning in representations of other peoples’ experiences.”
From looking at images from this exhibition, it seems to me as if Kessel is trying to point out the sheer volume of images which are produced and available on the internet. The image above shows the volume of prints and that is only representing one website and one day’s worth of images. The numbers of images that are uploaded are higher than that image shows, as there are many other sites other than Flikr.
Kessel’s mentions the “fear of drowning in representations of other peoples’ experiences.” He seems to be saying that the uploading of images is a bad thing, and he may mean that people have almost go no freedom anymore, and perhaps people don’t care as they are being very open and uploading photographs all the time.
Eleanor Imms Photography 