“He was there explores the anthropology of a man in his own reality. In a voyeuristic way Wessels observes and captures a man while he is unpacking his suitcase. The book investigates and plays with the voyeurism characteristic, with the man eventually provoking the beholder. Who is watching whom? And where does it take place, in a park maybe or a zoo?”
Rather like a stop-motion film, the photographs in this series (two per page) capture a man in the midst of emptying his suitcase, item after item is conjured up from the suitcase; clothes, blankets and other, mysterious objects are removed, unravelled, rearranged, and put aside on the park bench the man is sitting on, engrossed in this activity, the man does not appear to have noticed the close scrutiny of the photographer, who captures the man in an intimate act and in vulnerable positions, watching the man performs this strange ritual, one cannot help but feel like an intruder, as if the man were exposing his most private self instead of the contents of his suitcase, a box with a concertina format book, 31 x 23 cm closed, 31 x 874 cm open, signed and numbered/65, Amsterdam 2012
ISBN: 978-90-813859-2-3
