¨ Teun Hocks, male figure
Around 1980 staged photography became a popular art form, especially in The Netherlands. Conjuring with reality and fantasy, the photographer designs a scene of his own making to portray a particular situation. The photo becomes an autonomous image, like a work of art. The multi-talented Teun Hocks (1947) is the creator of photographic situations, a tinkerer, scenery designer, photographer, director, painter, and the leading man in his own creations. He appears as a man of many guises in his own black and white photos, many of which have colours added in. Hocks' great skill lies in his ability to concoct strange combinations of things which, individually, are quite ordinary. The situations which he creates in this way take on a sort of poetic power.

¨ Playful photography
Hocks' work invites us to invent the story of what gave rise to the photo and what will happen afterwards. The artist himself says: 'I like to think that my pictures tell a story. Not so long ago that wasn't acceptable, that wasn't real art. Even in my work I feel very vulnerable. I am far happier standing in the background and laughing up my sleeve than exposing myself to full view. That is probably the reason why my work is so archetypal: I try to portray just ordinary everyday things, not my own frustrations.'

¨ Three-dimensional photography
In 1992 Hocks won the prestigious Capi-Lux Alblas Prize. Thanks to the Capi-Lux Alblas Foundation we can now show you a video recording of how his works are created. On a couple of the 3-D photos on show you can see Teun Hocks busy with his hands and feet manipulating his mini mirror image, a glove puppet dressed in a shirt and tie. If you move your head from side to side you will notice that the figures actually start to move. Perhaps you too will find yourself in the seventh heaven, just like Hocks in one of the other photos.

Poppenspe(e)lmuseum. Kerkweg 38, 8193 KL  Vorchten NL  ( +31(0)578 - 63 13 29