Juxtapoz Magazine – Paul Kooiker's Timeless Fashion Photography

“Fashion”, a concept that reflects what is hot right now, is called “Fashion”. Paul Kooiker’sFashion photography, however, is characterized by its inexplicable nature. The artist depicts some of the most prominent fashion brands and famous faces today, but transports them into a new world. His surreal images seem like film stills, with stories only we can guess.

Paul Kooiker is a sought-after photographer in fashion and beauty. Paul Kooiker is able to break free from the dominant beauty paradigms with his fashion commissions. He creates a kind of unmanageable beauty that is not superficial but almost Freudian in its play on dark desires and fetishisms. His photography goes beyond traditional gender roles. His models take unusual poses, and their faces are often left out in the frame, hiding their identities. Sometimes, it is hard to tell if the subject of his photography is a doll or a person. Kooiker magnifies luxury objects’ presentation to the point that it is our desire that is captured by his camera.

All of the works in this exhibition were created using an iPhone. Paul Kooiker, a photographer who takes photographs with their iPhones, creates a parallel universe that is not connected to the real world. His exhibition. Fashion, at foam brings together a large variety of images from his fashion commissions to create an encompassing installation that works much like a hall of mirrors: it freezes the breakneck speed of the fashion industry and reveals the absurdity of human vanity and desire.