Maximilian Koppernock is a german photographer who currently lives and works in Amsterdam (NL). His artistic aim is to work on subjects which portray a plural and diverse thinking society, mirroring the present spirit of the time. His intention is to create new photographic narratives in the genres of still-life and portrait, associatively placed in an atmospheric context.
About Hard-Boiled – words by Maximilian Koppernock:
The photo series “Hard-Boiled” evokes a visual dialogue within the categories of sexual identity and intimacy. The viewer gets to peak at the intensity of intimacy alive between the queer protagonists.
In our present, intimacy tends to be a secretive experience, making the disclosure and externalization of inner emotional worlds difficult and risky. The men in the photographs are confidants and companions, portrayed in positions that express emotions, familiarity and tensions. Notions that, according to my subjective impression, prevailed during the photo sessions. They illustrate the duality as well as simultaneity associated with emotionality: Desire and anger, love and jealousy, tenderness and abstinence, intimacy and revelation.
In some photographs I am the protagonist, in others I have chosen my representative as the equivalent in the composition. The resulting photographs tell stories of our bonds and capture the intensity of those moments in physical closeness. The self-portraits in the series are a means of reflecting on myself, or better, of exploring myself and establishing my presence in relation to the other roles in the series. The photographs allow male sensibility and the nude body to be seen, while also shining a light on gender roles and their fragility. This intimate reading is running as a thread throughout the body of work.
Depictions of fish kissing, a mouthful of runny egg whites or a cold handshake in the shape of melting ice are brought into relationship with each other in associative terms and connections emerge intuitively. It is no coincidence that those couplings create associations of a wide variety of body parts and orifices. The series aims at creating a diverse and multifaceted system of reference in the realm of sexuality and intimacy and does so by de- and re- composing imagery, reflections and connections.
