‘Product Personality Cycle’ is looking at the cycles of consumption being driven
by brand personality and brand identity. Building on ideas of community and
commodification coming closer together through a feedback loop, there is a
cycle becoming apparent through advertising. It constitutes reusing and
recycling ideas and images. This loop of imagery also has the potential to
generate predictable consumer behaviour, which makes us underestimate
brand presence in our lives. Much more than that, it makes us blind towards
the reflections of society that can be used as base for marketing strategies by
corporations.

While these bold ideas of repetition might remain in the realms of hypothesis,
it is through Kööp’s images that they are brought to life, ultimately stopping
the process at work and actualising the cycle. These extreme and unusual
depictions of consumerism are driven by the imagining of limitless cycle of
branding and rebranding. It is a state where all control has been removed from
the consumers and product personality has replaced brand personality. By this
the series of photographs suggests a dystopia based on a lack of individual
ideas and the commodification of emotions.


Product Personality Cycle

Selection of self portraits taken during the first part of the covid-19 pandemic

Quarantine Casual

An empty apartment implies that no one lives there, but one could wonder about the imaginations and memories lingering in those silent rooms. Through the images, the apartment becomes a representation of the mind, hosting scenes of raw imagination, unbothered by rational thought.
We might consider a fully decorated room; a space loaded with memories and life experiences, to be a life goal.
In this situation, the thought of nothing being there appears most unsettling. While we let these spaces challenge our
imaginations, they propose an undefinable number of options and opportunities. The mere multiplicity of the situation is destined to make one overwhelmed with the potential of that empty space, fearful of a state of heightened entropy. Resulting in a kind of dangerous emptiness, one that feels indefinable, and eventually reveals itself as the opposite. We feel the space between the decisions, an uncertainty which makes it unable to get a hold of a choice that feels right.



Phantoms Among Imaginations

With all focus on a wide range of negative things seemingly brought on by the current year, photographers Johann Kööp and Julia Kafizova spontaneously discovered a parallel in their work.  In a playful turn of events, a dialogue started through the use of spot healing tool in photoshop. Manipulating details of images into unexpected surrealities proved to be a humorous take on the concept of healing. But 'healing' is much more that; as a conversation it makes sense, and by data it makes a new complete form. One that might then be considered 'healed'. As much as life might sometimes feel predestined, especially the one we live online, the conversations we have make us feel the possibility of randomness and spontaneity, even though the correspondence created though the editing tools are very much controlled by the program.

Spontaneous Healing

With the creative direction of Julia Zahhartsenko, "Scale" is a series of pictures poised between dream and reality, a reality that is deformed by the photography of Johann Koop and the styling of Liisa-Chrislin Saleh (who also does Make-up and Hair), with the help of Styling Assistant Victoria Truuvert. The layout is by Beatrice Panero and the studio is Y86 Creative Space. Model Mia Moore is immersed in a space made of light and contrasts, of colors and shadows. The clothes she wears belong to the avant-garde style, a fashion evolution that does not pay attention to reality, for which the dress, the jacket, the trousers, are pieces that must compose an idea, a dream, wrap the body and enhance its features. In the first pictures Mia is wearing a feathers bolero by Fankadelik Vintage, she has a dreamy look while surrounded by white fabrics that look just like bird wings. Then she changes: we see her dazzled by a mysterious light, whose origins are unknown, wearing a deconstructed silver dress by Tauri Vastrik. We see her shining, illuminated by a red light. We see her laughing and playing, moving freely, in a canary yellow knitted top and gloves by Carol Ott. She never looks at the camera, and when she does it her image is distorted, she looks like she’s coming straight out of a French Expressionist film. It is difficult to understand if that is her real face or if it is an apparition that has free interpretation. We see her, in the latest images, from her back: she is part of the set, made up of a black net that wraps her and highlights her shapes. The freedom of the first photos is metaphorically nullified: the net captures her, erases parts of her body, makes her appearing more and more distant. Mia is slowly disappearing. Like a phoenix she reappears, standing proud on a fiery red background, wearing a dress by Tauri Vastrik. She appears and disappears, disappears and reappears, now more and more fickle, illuminated by confused lights and by superimpositions, by optical effects. “Scale” is an implicit reflection on matter: what is matter? Something tangible? Something interpretable? Matter is everything and nothing. Matter is “Scale”.

Creative direction: Julia Zahhartsenko / julyisart

Photography and set: Johann Kööp / kanaliha

Styling and MUAH: Liisa-Chrislin Saleh / lisasalvaje

Model: Mia Moore / miamooore

Styling assistant: Victoria Truuvert / victoriatruuvert

Studio: Y86 Creative Space / y86_creativespace

Layout: Beatrice Panero / pane.nero

Words: Anna Quirino / a.qrn

Scale / Atom

Based on the distrusted state of social spaces, Networks of Distortion imagines the networks of social spaces with a  newfound sense of anxiety. Further embracing the digital social space built on manipulation and distortion pushes towards an abstract sense of being. Leaving to navigate the social space with underlying confusion, the anxieties produced might go seemingly unnoticed or will be ignored; shadowed by the pressure of playing a part of the society. 
Being projected to media and marketing campaigns, the self inevitably becomes a part of- and shifts focus towards the bigger picture, also blurring the lines of home and public space.
Kööp imagines himself directly amidst the all these networks, getting lost in the vast virtual and physical spaces, between being the product and being the consumer. Being left in a state of confusion, struggling to make sense of it all poses questions and reminders about how we often underestimate the impact that our everyday environment has on us. What does future hold for the individual in the 21st century, as well as how has the society become so inseparable with problems around mental health.


Networks of Distortion

There are so many possible sources of influence in an urban environment, one
might wonder if our individual is rather a reflection of the space. The urban
sphere constantly imposes expectations and sets of social rules. It could be
perceived as a set of limitations, but it could also communicate seemingly
endless potential. ‘Reflection of Our Space’ explores a playful mix of the two.
Learning from the various perceived limitations to achieve a state of peace and
happiness. However, the seemingly successful path to comfortable living is
always interrupted by the same reflection that once fuelled it.



Photographer & Set Designer: Johann Kööp / @kanaliha

Fashion Stylist: Paulina Wasążnik / @mydstylist

MUA & Hair: Marta Płatkowska / @level.up.beauty

Model: Nordi / @nordi.s

Model Agency: ECManagement / @ecmanagement




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Johann Kööp

Product Personality Cycle

Quarantine Casual

Phantoms Among Imaginations

Spontaneous Healing

Scale / Atom

Networks of Distortion

Reflection of our Space

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