2013 | 2016
collaborative project that explores visual culture and photography in particular.
publication | transdiscipline | archive | photography | research | collaboration | education
ed is a collective i was happy to be part of for several years. brought together by chance, nikki bromann, an applied ethicist, sterre sprengers, an image editor, and myself, an artist, together investigated contemporary photography, revealing modern day use and unwritten rules of the medium in order to get a better understanding of it. we took the role of investigators of the developments in the visual field, meaning, of images and their aesthetic value.
ed has been working together on two projects. first is ed it: the substantial system for photographic archive maintenance. one of the ideals we strive towards is 'less is more' and restoring the value of photos that are important enough to save, revisit and remember. we've developed a system to manually edit a private, digital photo archive down to a representative selection of images. we established a set of rules and principles which helped us to achieve a certain level of objectivity. we have published a book where we explore the complexity of the task and demonstrate the virtue of editing promoting conscious photography and awareness of the medium. in the process we found that through editing personal archives, a map of contemporary photography unfolded itself, revealing modern day use and unwritten rules of the medium. we discovered patterns and regularities of how people use photography today. the book explores a four-step system to manually edit a private, digital photo archive down to a representative selection of images. It includes a detailed description of the process. together with ed it appendix called discoveries is included. appendix explores tendencies, observations and discoveries about the ways photography is used today, these were made during the archive analysis. on the web site we dedicated to the project a detailed explanation of the system, with all the steps and methods we perform to extract the essence of the archive, can be found.
ed
ed it: the substantial system for photographic maintenance
self published softcover pocket + appendix 456 pages + 148 pages
ed it not only found itself in a book form but also functioned as an ehibition, where book has literaly infolded on the wall visualising all the connections we were making along the way.
another project we've worked together with ed is octagon. initiated by fotodok, contemporary space for photography and fred ritchin, ed investigates and explores new possibilities for documentary photography. we formulated eight terms – ethics, realness, collectivity, use, beauty, process, immediacy, presence – which they use to filter information, generating a better understanding of developments in documentary photography and their meaning. octagon – a polygon that has eight sides, matching the eight selected terms. sides which give different filtered perspectives on contemporary photography. on octagon.editingstandard.com we explore this on-going investigation and share our discoveries. i reflect upon selected topics in an artistic way, exploring the possibilities for moving images and its working mechanisms. i've made several movies for the octagon project. for example, one of them comments on the role of the image in propaganda strategies, and another explores the role of photography in the depiction of the revolution and opinion forming.
ed grew and the collaboration became a reservoir which i could fill up with ongoing questions, where we could use each one of us to look for answers. the aspect of sharing and creating the models of unconventional tools for education and creative thinking became an integral part of the project manifesting in open source materials free to use for everyone who is interested.
this short introduction video which made by fotodok, who commissioned octagon project. it briefly introduces main players and the goals of the project.