Useful Photography #009

Useful Photography #009 is built from photography manuals, the guides meant to help unskilled people take better photographs.

Idea Books says the images come from the analogue era, when “manual” could describe the camera as well as the guide. Next to the approved techniques, the pages show what goes wrong: double exposure, under- and overexposure, poor lighting, camera shake, chemical stains and red eyes. The same listing counts 126 color and 121 black-and-white illustrations. Hans Aarsman, Claudie de Cleen, Julian Germain, Erik Kessels and Hans van der Meer collected and edited the issue, published by KesselsKramer in Amsterdam in 2009.

The series is an annual magazine of overlooked, underwhelming images made for practical purposes, edited by Hans Aarsman, Julian Germain, Frank Schallmaier and Erik Kessels, with Claudie de Cleen and Hans van der Meer as earlier editors.