The cult classic photobook celebrating the North Korean leader's
infinite capacity for looking at things
Comical and bizarre, Kim Jong Il Looking at Things has become a cult
classic among photobook connoisseurs since its publication in 2015. The
book was based upon one of the most followed, shared and imitated
monothematic Tumblr blogs in recent years. Created by João Rocha, an art
director at an advertising firm in Lisbon, the blog is a collection of
photographs which depict the former "Dear Leader" of North Korea, often
accompanied by military personnel or senior advisers, engaged in the act
of looking at things.
Since the blog's creation in October 2010, Rocha has posted photographs
appropriated from the North Korean Central News Agency, which he matches
with deadpan captions: "looking at cows"; "looking at blue rods";
"looking at pastry"; "looking at a metalworker"; "looking at a DVD
labeling machine." Now available again after a long period of
unavailability, this hilarious book includes an essay by visual culture
writer Marco Bohr.