Kim Jong Il Looking at Things
by Joao Rocha
Photographs: various photographers; edited by Joao Rocha
Text: Marco Bohr
Publisher: Jean Boite Editions
190 pages
Pictures: 74 color illustrations
Year: First published in 2012
ISBN: 978-2-36568-002-8
Price: 65 €
Comments: Sixth edition; Hardcover; Collection "Follow Me, Collecting Images Today"; 16,7 x 24 cm; Graphic design by Renaud Othnin-Girard; Bilingual edition English and French.
Kim Jong Il Looking at Things is one of the most followed, shared and imitated monothematic Tumblr in recent years. Collected by João Rocha, this uninterrupted series of photographs of North Korea's Dear Leader looking at things fascinates with its formal rigor and intensity. Without removing these photographs their primary function - to raise Kim Jong-Il to an iconic rank - this series forces a shift in the purpose of propaganda. The icon changes to taxonomy, the viewer is being watched, and the meaning of this images beaks away.
Accompanied by an essay by Marco Bohr entitled Looking at Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things, the book reveals the springs of our fascination for these accumulated images on the Internet - these memes - analyzing how a series of photographs apparently innocent becomes viral and attractive. By publishing Kim Jong Il Looking at Things in the collection FOLLOW ME, Collecting Images Today, Jean Boîte Éditions continues to highlight another art scene, which establishes the online collector as a creator, and the ephemeral in the perennial.
« [The book] ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, but the unconscious humour in the images derives from the fact that, no matter how humble the object, each picture has been given the same portentous, formulaic treatment. »
– Martin Parr and Gerry Badger in The Photobook : A History Volume III, Phaidon Press Limited, 2014, London
« The spare, almost clinical look of the images (…) coupled with the often profoundly mundane nature of the objects at hand lend the entire portfolio a tone that is one part humorous and three parts crazy. […] Fortunately for all of us, the Dear Leader lives on in Rocha’s book, where we can look at him looking at things to our collective hearts’ content. »
– Time
« Are these pictures the works of North Korean photographers? Of Joao Rocha? Or of the web swarm that shares, reblogs, and forwards them? Memes owe their existence to multiple authors, while the book as a definite composition necessarily has an identifiable author. »
– Texte Zür Kunst
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Call Me Lola: In Search of Mother
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Das fotografische Werk
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From "blaue horse" till now days 1965-2022 (signed)
by Boris Mikhailov
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by Krass Clement
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by Koo Seong Youn
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Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com
Kim Jong Il Looking at Things
by Joao Rocha
Photographs: various photographers; edited by Joao Rocha
Text: Marco Bohr
Publisher: Jean Boite Editions
190 pages
Pictures: 74 color illustrations
Year: First published in 2012
ISBN: 978-2-36568-002-8
Price: 65 €
Comments: Sixth edition; Hardcover; Collection "Follow Me, Collecting Images Today"; 16,7 x 24 cm; Graphic design by Renaud Othnin-Girard; Bilingual edition English and French.
Kim Jong Il Looking at Things is one of the most followed, shared and imitated monothematic Tumblr in recent years. Collected by João Rocha, this uninterrupted series of photographs of North Korea's Dear Leader looking at things fascinates with its formal rigor and intensity. Without removing these photographs their primary function - to raise Kim Jong-Il to an iconic rank - this series forces a shift in the purpose of propaganda. The icon changes to taxonomy, the viewer is being watched, and the meaning of this images beaks away.
Accompanied by an essay by Marco Bohr entitled Looking at Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things, the book reveals the springs of our fascination for these accumulated images on the Internet - these memes - analyzing how a series of photographs apparently innocent becomes viral and attractive. By publishing Kim Jong Il Looking at Things in the collection FOLLOW ME, Collecting Images Today, Jean Boîte Éditions continues to highlight another art scene, which establishes the online collector as a creator, and the ephemeral in the perennial.
« [The book] ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, but the unconscious humour in the images derives from the fact that, no matter how humble the object, each picture has been given the same portentous, formulaic treatment. »
– Martin Parr and Gerry Badger in The Photobook : A History Volume III, Phaidon Press Limited, 2014, London
« The spare, almost clinical look of the images (…) coupled with the often profoundly mundane nature of the objects at hand lend the entire portfolio a tone that is one part humorous and three parts crazy. […] Fortunately for all of us, the Dear Leader lives on in Rocha’s book, where we can look at him looking at things to our collective hearts’ content. »
– Time
« Are these pictures the works of North Korean photographers? Of Joao Rocha? Or of the web swarm that shares, reblogs, and forwards them? Memes owe their existence to multiple authors, while the book as a definite composition necessarily has an identifiable author. »
– Texte Zür Kunst
More books by Joao Rocha
more books tagged »documentary« | >> see all
-
Call Me Lola: In Search of Mother
by Loli Kantor
Euro 53 -
The World Is Where You Stop (signed)
by Tomasz Tomaszewski
sold out -
Congo (Belge)
by Carl De Keyzer
Euro 95 -
Das fotografische Werk
by Josef Dapra
Euro 28 -
From "blaue horse" till now days 1965-2022 (signed)
by Boris Mikhailov
sold out -
Langs Vinden (signed)
by Krass Clement
Euro 770
more books tagged »Korean« | >> see all
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Koo Seong Youn - catalogue 2005
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12 -
Voice
by Jungjin Lee
Euro 92 -
Koo Seong Youn - Dukwon Cube exhibition catalogue
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12 -
Koo Seong Youn catalogue 2005-2007
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12
more books tagged »North Korea« | >> see all
-
North Korea - The Power of Dreams
by Xiomara Bender
sold out -
3DPRK (signed)
by Matjaž Tančič
sold out -
3DPRK (signed)
by Matjaž Tančič
Euro 44
more books tagged »Portuguese« | >> see all
-
Smell of Tiger precedes Tiger (signed)
by André Príncipe
Euro 46 -
Costa (review copy)
by José Pedro Cortes
Euro 75 -
Amazonia
by Paul Cupido
sold out -
Things here and things still to come (signed - last copy)
by José Pedro Cortes
Euro 250 -
Rio Submerso
by Goncalo Rosa da Silva
sold out -
Lisboa, Cidade Triste e Alegre
by Costa Martins & Victor Palla
sold out
Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com
Kim Jong Il Looking at Things
by Joao Rocha
Photographs: various photographers; edited by Joao Rocha
Text: Marco Bohr
Publisher: Jean Boite Editions
190 pages
Pictures: 74 color illustrations
Year: First published in 2012
ISBN: 978-2-36568-002-8
Price: 65 €
Comments: Sixth edition; Hardcover; Collection "Follow Me, Collecting Images Today"; 16,7 x 24 cm; Graphic design by Renaud Othnin-Girard; Bilingual edition English and French.
Kim Jong Il Looking at Things is one of the most followed, shared and imitated monothematic Tumblr in recent years. Collected by João Rocha, this uninterrupted series of photographs of North Korea's Dear Leader looking at things fascinates with its formal rigor and intensity. Without removing these photographs their primary function - to raise Kim Jong-Il to an iconic rank - this series forces a shift in the purpose of propaganda. The icon changes to taxonomy, the viewer is being watched, and the meaning of this images beaks away.
Accompanied by an essay by Marco Bohr entitled Looking at Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things, the book reveals the springs of our fascination for these accumulated images on the Internet - these memes - analyzing how a series of photographs apparently innocent becomes viral and attractive. By publishing Kim Jong Il Looking at Things in the collection FOLLOW ME, Collecting Images Today, Jean Boîte Éditions continues to highlight another art scene, which establishes the online collector as a creator, and the ephemeral in the perennial.
« [The book] ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous, but the unconscious humour in the images derives from the fact that, no matter how humble the object, each picture has been given the same portentous, formulaic treatment. »
– Martin Parr and Gerry Badger in The Photobook : A History Volume III, Phaidon Press Limited, 2014, London
« The spare, almost clinical look of the images (…) coupled with the often profoundly mundane nature of the objects at hand lend the entire portfolio a tone that is one part humorous and three parts crazy. […] Fortunately for all of us, the Dear Leader lives on in Rocha’s book, where we can look at him looking at things to our collective hearts’ content. »
– Time
« Are these pictures the works of North Korean photographers? Of Joao Rocha? Or of the web swarm that shares, reblogs, and forwards them? Memes owe their existence to multiple authors, while the book as a definite composition necessarily has an identifiable author. »
– Texte Zür Kunst
More books by Joao Rocha
more books tagged »documentary« | >> see all
-
Call Me Lola: In Search of Mother
by Loli Kantor
Euro 53 -
The World Is Where You Stop (signed)
by Tomasz Tomaszewski
sold out -
Congo (Belge)
by Carl De Keyzer
Euro 95 -
Das fotografische Werk
by Josef Dapra
Euro 28 -
From "blaue horse" till now days 1965-2022 (signed)
by Boris Mikhailov
sold out -
Langs Vinden (signed)
by Krass Clement
Euro 770
more books tagged »Korean« | >> see all
-
Koo Seong Youn - catalogue 2005
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12 -
Voice
by Jungjin Lee
Euro 92 -
Koo Seong Youn - Dukwon Cube exhibition catalogue
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12 -
Koo Seong Youn catalogue 2005-2007
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12
more books tagged »North Korea« | >> see all
-
North Korea - The Power of Dreams
by Xiomara Bender
sold out -
3DPRK (signed)
by Matjaž Tančič
sold out -
3DPRK (signed)
by Matjaž Tančič
Euro 44
more books tagged »Portuguese« | >> see all
-
Smell of Tiger precedes Tiger (signed)
by André Príncipe
Euro 46 -
Costa (review copy)
by José Pedro Cortes
Euro 75 -
Amazonia
by Paul Cupido
sold out -
Things here and things still to come (signed - last copy)
by José Pedro Cortes
Euro 250 -
Rio Submerso
by Goncalo Rosa da Silva
sold out -
Lisboa, Cidade Triste e Alegre
by Costa Martins & Victor Palla
sold out
Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com