in almost every picture #13

In almost every picture #13 is about the most common mistake in the history of image-making: part of the photographer’s hand appearing in frame. It traces this eternal error through the ages, from black and white photos to the digital era. Over the course of this book, the images become increasingly abstract, moving from a portrait with the occasional blurred digit visible, all the way to Rothko-like compositions in which blotches of light and color eradicate all recognizable forms. Once or twice, we’re left wondering whether malicious intent lies behind the encroaching finger. For instance, there’s a family portrait from the middle of the last century in which the heads of two women are neatly covered up. 

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are examples that strike us as oddly funny: a shot of a couple on a mountain is so monumentally messed-up that it manages to both whack their heads off and include a smear of thumb. 

A compendium, then, of accidental fingers, mysterious thumbs and vast palms obliterating loved ones and landscapes alike… for purposes that we can only speculate at, and frustrations we can only imagine.