A very hairy man: Paul Kooiker’s best photograph

  • 1/3/2024
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Imade this photograph for aneditorial for Hercules Universal, a gay men’s magazine from Madrid. The starting point for the series was a subculture: bears and otters. Bears are larger gay men with a lot of hair, and otters are skinnier gay men. What we see in the image is a bear. When I saw the styling of the hair on the body I thought: “Wow, I’ve never seen something like that before.” I was surprised you could play with body hair like that. It almost looked like Hokusai’s waves. The whole series was 20 images, but this one was not published; it was so distinct it didn’t fit. I was happy about that. A fashion or magazine shoot is a very dynamic situation. You have to be clear about what you want, but there is a lot of improvisation. Of course, most of the images I make are with clothes, but in my work I have always seen the body as a sculpture. I play with arms, legs and hair. In this image I cut the head off – that’s very important because you lose the identity, characteristics and personality, and the body becomes my playground. I talk to the models before a shoot. In the past I have had discussions about objectification, but in fashion I don’t get those questions as much any more. Most of the time, it is about clothes, and the essence of clothes is a body. I think, in that sense, my images are closer to the essence of fashion than a portrait of a beautiful woman – but maybe I’m alone in thinking that. I often like to work with cliches in photography. In 2014, I wanted to make a work about the most terrible filter: sepia, that brownish colour that gives a kind of romance to an image and makes it cosier. Since then I have never stopped working with this colour, I like it so much. It is on the edge of bad taste, with its strange changes in tone, and when you Google sepia you get the worst photographs. I find it exciting to work with something you don’t like, then turn it around until you love it. I have always worked with an iPhone, ever since the iPhone 3 came out. Something happens when you’re at a shoot with an iPhone. The mystery of the big camera and screens is not there. I love the iPhone, I love that the lenses aren’t perfect, that you can’t have everything under control. I like the surprises of things that aren’t sharp, I like the limits of the camera. It is enough for me. During the shoot it is part of my hand, it almost becomes part of my body. It’s light and easy, I can play around and move more – but models often think: “Huh? What’s happening here?” They are waiting for me to get out the big heavy camera. Last year I had an exhibition at Foam in Amsterdam, and I decided that I didn’t want to differentiate between my personal and my fashion work any more – I let it become one. My fashion images still feel very autonomous. I always do my own set design, especially when I work in my studio in Amsterdam, and I always do the lighting myself – those two elements are an important part of my language. Photography is an intense thing in my life. When I was 17 or 18, I saw the work of Hans Bellmer and Man Ray and I thought: “I have company, there’s a history.” I felt I had the permission to do my work. Photography is such a realistic medium. Even when you shoot in black and white, everyone thinks: “This is real.” I’m jealous of painters and sculptors who work with more freedom. Photography is my medium but I am constantly fighting with it. It’s a love-hate relationship. I’m fighting against reality. Paul Kooiker’s CV Born: 1964, Rotterdam Trained: A bachelor’s degree and a master’s in fine art Influences: “Between the ages of 15 and 25, I watched every film ever made by Rainer Werner Fassbinder” High point: “My artist book Nude Animal Cigar, 2015, where I researched different sepia tones for the first time” Low point: “Living for six months in London in 1987 – very dark and lonely” Top tip: “Never copy, and don’t illustrate”

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