In her essay “In Defense of the Poor Image” Hito Steyerl sings the praises of low quality images. She discusses their (political and aesthetic) potential and lauds their reach. Although that text is now over a decade old, it is still very much up to date: visual phenomena such as memes, tiktok videos and cellphone footage have increased the reach and visibility of such “poor” imagery.

Film student Lucas Nelissen incorporates quotes from Steyerl’s essay into an engaging and thoughtfully designed epigraphic video essay. He employs a range of visual strategies and formats that demonstrate a strong understanding of Steyerl’s ideas. The addition of a loading circle and playback glitches, for instance, is particularly effective. These creative elements highlight an aspect of poor images that Steyerl herself does not explicitly address: not only resolution and compression render them “poor,” but also the fact that they are often difficult to access or view smoothly.

Nelissen’s argument further emphasizes the democratizing power of poor images: how online bootlegs enable films to reach new audiences, and how creative TikTok users reinterpret and repurpose them. As a result, the video—like Steyerl’s essay—functions as a compelling defense of this bottom-up form of visual culture.

Choosing Nosferatu as the primary visual source is an inspired decision. Both the film and its titular character metaphorically “rise from the dead” as they recirculate in degraded, “poor” copies. The metaphor is so strong that it is a pity Nelissen didn’t use it from the very beginning of his video.