Paul Kooiker’s latest photobook,Nude Animal Cigar, is a peculiar hybrid made up of variations on the three themes revealed in the title. It’s as if the weirdest and most lovely nudes, or mournful animals and mysterious still lifes of cigar butts have been picked out from photographys 176- year history. But although the images sight ancient- fashioned,they have all been made within the past five years by this contemporary Dutch artist. Applying sepia filters to all the images, he lends the series a vintage and melancholy feel, and by advantage of the treatment knits this motley trio of monochrome motifs together.
My work is successful if it is about looking,and about photography,” says Kooiker in his studio, and located in a peaceful street on the southern periphery of downtown Amsterdam. “Ultimately,my work is about looking, and looking is the final act of voyeurism. It makes the work accessible, or as everybody is able to recognise himself in this act. It also leaves the viewer confused. What I want to achieve is to make the public feel accessory to the images they witness.”
Source: bjp-online.com