Publisher Note

Kim Jong Il Looking at Things is one of the most followed, shared and imitated monothematic Tumblr in recent years. Uninterrupted series of photographs of North Korea's Dear Leader looking at things, this series 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 breaks 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 apparently innocent photographs become 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.

Photobook

Kim Jong Il Looking at Things

by João Rocha

Publisher
Edition 9th edition
Release Date 2022
Credits
Author: Marco Bohr
Artist: João Rocha
Availability Available
Work  
Subform Photobook
Topics Kim Jong Il
Methods Photography
Dimensions 16.7 × 24.0 cm
Pages 190