Erik Kessels fails his photo shoot at Photo London

The photo curator and author of new book Failed It! brings down the house - before he's even begun his talk

In an age that increasingly values the slightly soulless pursuit of perfection, when we have apps on our phones to make our pictures look crummy - overexposed or marred by a flare of light -  it's good to know that some things, specifically those associated with our Failed It! author and photography curator Erik Kessels, can go still go wrong without any effort at all. 

Kessels has said  that "in a world where everything is pointing towards perfection, it's interesting to look towards purposeful imperfections." So the cynic in you might be forgiven for thinking Erik staged the disastrous scenario below, which occurred when we tried to take his picture prior to his talk at Photo London yesterday. We can assure you, he didn't. 

We'll be bringing you an interview with Erik next week. for now though check out Erik's happy failure below, and learn more about Failed It! here.

'OK, I'm just going to try this Jim Morrison-style Christ-like pose' - bear with me a moment'

'Oh, hang on there seems to be a little problem with the backdrop, let me see if I can fix this'

'Oh it's come down again'

'It doesn't seem to want to...oh, that's it fixed!'

'Oh...'

'...no!'

'Help, who turned the lights out?'

'OK let's just pretend that didn't happen'