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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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 »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
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Koo Seong Youn - catalogue 2005
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Koo Seong Youn - Dukwon Cube exhibition catalogue
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Voice
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Koo Seong Youn catalogue 2005-2007
by Koo Seong Youn
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Monument (last copy - second printing)
by Trent Parke
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Congo Belge en Images
by Carl De Keyzer
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by Jasper Bastian
Euro 95 -
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by David Thomson
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by Rob Hornstra
Euro 75 -
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by Rob Hornstra
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by Pedro Costa
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The house of the seven women
by Tito Mouraz
sold out -
Rio Submerso
by Goncalo Rosa da Silva
sold out -
Amazonia
by Paul Cupido
sold out -
Portugal 1975 (book + print, signed)
by Fausto Giaccone
Euro 165 -
A Portuguese Story (book + print)
by Fausto Giaccone
Euro 490
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 »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 »Korean« | >> see all
-
Koo Seong Youn - catalogue 2005
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12 -
Koo Seong Youn - Dukwon Cube exhibition catalogue
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12 -
Voice
by Jungjin Lee
Euro 92 -
Koo Seong Youn catalogue 2005-2007
by Koo Seong Youn
Euro 12
more books tagged »documentary« | >> see all
-
Monument (last copy - second printing)
by Trent Parke
Euro 250 -
Congo Belge en Images
by Carl De Keyzer
Euro 315 -
Gandras
by Jasper Bastian
Euro 95 -
DRY HOLE
by David Thomson
Euro 53 -
The Unknown - Russia 2003 (signed)
by Rob Hornstra
Euro 75 -
Life here is serious (signed - last copy)
by Rob Hornstra
sold out
more books tagged »Portuguese« | >> see all
-
Casa de Lava (last copy)
by Pedro Costa
sold out -
The house of the seven women
by Tito Mouraz
sold out -
Rio Submerso
by Goncalo Rosa da Silva
sold out -
Amazonia
by Paul Cupido
sold out -
Portugal 1975 (book + print, signed)
by Fausto Giaccone
Euro 165 -
A Portuguese Story (book + print)
by Fausto Giaccone
Euro 490
Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com