Henrik Purienne is a documentary photographer from a small town in South Africa. After moving to Cape Town, he discovers Kloofhill, a complex of apartments with which he falls in love and quickly becomes obsessed with it thanks to the furniture that stimulates harmony and a connection between his mind and the surrounding environment. Purienne suffers from a disease called AIS or Aesthetic Irritability Syndrome that requires him to meticulously treat his relationship between the order of space and the mental order. For this reason, he needs to be in stimulating environments to be able to perform at best.
Jeux de Peau is his latest book, published on November 9th by the IDEA publishing house.
The entire project was produced inside the house where he currently lives in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. This environment was able to provide him with the right inspiration to take shots that deal with a theme very dear to him: the power that design has, how it can transform our life experience and how photography is able to capture exemplary moments especially not only from a concrete/material point of view but also from a metaphorical/spiritual one.
The idea behind all his work has its roots in the complex of Kloofhill who helped him to develop the part of his creativity. This is an environment that Purienne defines as “defined” but that at the same time manages to convey a sense of freedom thanks to natural phenomena such as the sunlight that filters through the trees on the inner walls and the clouds of light that on sunny days almost go to rest on the mountains.
What emerges from his shots in the book is his ability to capture life, subjects, and objects within his environment and inner space – understood as a metaphor. In addition, thanks to his photographs he is able to document real things that enhance the power of art and the intangibility of emotions.
According to Henrik Purienne, the magic of design and photography lies in the strong ability to give a state of mind a more introspective and reflective nuance until it is internalized and made its own, as if it were a sort of philosophical thought.
Jeux de Peau is subtitled ‘Physical space as mental space‘. The book comes in a specially made cardboard box and can be purchased online.
Text by Anna Cardaci
