Erik Kessels' new book documents the Attack of the Giant Fingers

There’s not an amateur photographer alive who hasn’t got a roll of film back from the developing booth of their local supermarket to find that almost every picture is clouded over by a giant fleshy finger. Usually it obstructs most if not all of the image and sends the photograph itself catapulting straight into the nearest bin in a fit of frustration.

Except if you’re Erik Kessels, who lives for these kinds of mistakes. Attack of the Giant Fingers is number 13 in his In Almost Every Picture series, recording the oddities of found photography sourced at flea markets, old photo albums and online. It consists very simply of a collection of found photographs featuring the giant finger, and ranges from the hilarious to the downright malicious.

“In some images, the finger-intruder borders on ominous,” Erik explains, “as in a picture of a can half-lost in grass at night, part of a hand bisecting the frame. In others there’s a certain poignancy: see the old shot of a young man in uniform. Was he going to war? Was this damaged photo kept because it would be the last image of a friend, brother or son?”

Yet another corker by Kesselskramer Publishing, this book begs to be added to the collection, not least to validate your own botched family albums.