2Sic 2Spurious

2Sic 2Spurious is a whimsical collection of photographic mistakes in a stylish square package.

This book is a community collaboration featuring works by David Allen, Virgil Roger, Alex Purcell, Adam James, Marisa Mouton, Stig Starr, Jason Self, Moni Smith, PJ De Jesus, Steve Brokow, Maite Pons, Simon King, Julián Péter, John BackEastPhoto, Tim Dobbs, Jeremy Calow, Ashley Williams, Lilly Swartz, Matt Parry, Hamish Gill, Gordon Boddington, Martin Siegal, Lorraine Healy, and Sina Farhat.

This is the only square-shaped book I own, but that’s not the sole attribute that makes it stand out. Dostoevsky’s quote and author names aside, all of the text in this publication is a long Lorem Ipsum placeholder, arranged alongside the photos as a visual statement in defiance of perfectionism.

Filled with accidental double-exposures, light leaks, overlapping frames, burnt frame edges, lab mistakes, newton rings, blurs, colour shifts, and a few distortions I don’t have a name for, 2Sic 2Spurious is truly a unique piece of print.

I found flipping through the 56 coated 8¼” pages of carefully curated errors, in colour, to be an educational and liberating experience. This square-shaped book goes beyond the inspirational message for those of us who are afraid to make mistakes: it is a prompt to experiment and think outside of the box. Aimed at those who choose to use the medium with inherently more noise and less definition than that of the modern sensors along with a complete lack of instant feedback, 2Sic 2Spurious is a visual reminder of our photographic tool’s potential for serendipitous glee.

As of January 2021, the magazine is unfortunately sold out, but you can follow Matt Parry’s Instagram to see what he comes up with next.