Kim Jong Il Looking at Things

Comical, bizarre, and impeccably straight-faced, Kim Jong Il Looking at Things has been a cult favorite among photobook devotees since its publication in 2015. The book grew out of one of the most followed, shared, and enthusiastically imitated monothematic Tumblr blogs of the last decade.

Created by Lisbon-based art director João Rocha, the project assembles photographs of North Korea’s former “Dear Leader,” often flanked by military officials or senior advisers, engaged in the solemn—and endlessly adaptable—act of looking at things. Appropriated from the North Korean Central News Agency, the images are paired with Rocha’s deadpan captions: “looking at cows,” “looking at blue rods,” “looking at pastry,” “looking at a DVD labeling machine.”

Now available again after a long absence, this quietly hilarious volume includes an essay by visual culture writer Marco Bohr, cementing its status as both internet artifact and photobook classic.

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