Dutch photographer Paul Kooiker is one of those people who takes photos of the things that no one really wants to look at. He states in Zoo Magazine (not the bogun Australian publication, the German one), that this is "inherent to the medium of photography" and that "when I photograph, I am looking through a keyhole, quite literally. The presence of the camera has the power to transform the situation at hand into a private scene. In this sense my photographs are always more than just images; they are devices to understand what I perceive to be the voyeuristic nature of photography itself. Peeping is the essence of photography."
This kind of photography appeals to me. I've always been interested in the smaller details of everyday life rather than the big obvious parts. I'd rather see a picture of someones bedside table than their wedding day. And I'm a lot more interested in looking at a picture that makes me question its purpose and meaning or the photographer's intentions over one that simply makes me go 'ahh' and flick the page.
Kooike has a number of books of his photography that I must try and get my hands on. Above are a few images from his book Hunting and Fishing. They are tame compared to some of his work of which the images are too extreme even for me.
You can see these images and more here.
No comments:
Post a Comment