[The Guardian] A very hairy man: Paul Kooiker’s best photograph

A very hairy man: Paul Kooiker’s best photograph

‘This is a “bear” – a larger gay man with a lot of body hair. I was surprised you could play with it like that. It almost looks like Hokusai’s waves’

I made 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.

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