The Place We Go To Fight
Is Where We Learn To Love
2024
When I was a teenager, my father opened his own self-defense gym. With a background in Krav Maga from his time in the French army, he was eager to pass on his skills to others. Soon after the gym's opening, I began attending.
Like many boys growing up with their fathers on the periphery, we didn't talk much about feelings. Instead, the gym became a sanctuary, allowing us to connect as father and son. He thought it was his responsibility as a father to teach his son how to defend himself. Here, our bodies communicated, conveying what words often couldn't. Lessons were imparted through repetition, passing knowledge from one generation to the next.
My aim is to bring my medium and practice of photography into my father's arena: the dojo. As a way to reconnect with him by staging our relationship for the lens within the place where we learned to love through embodiment.
As the project unfolded, not knowing exactly where it was going, I started noticing a change. Through these staged movements and interviews with my father, it laid the foundation of a newfound connection and, by effect, a newfound empathy between us. The creative sphere we created allowed for us to reconnect without judgment.
Here, our worlds collided and combined, and the more our bodies performed for the camera, I became confronted with the fact that the time my father and I have together is limited, precious, and should be cherished. The project is not only about the two of us but acts as an invitation for the viewer to reflect on their own relationships with their parents and perhaps may spark some new conversations along the way.
HD two-channel video 07.24 min.
Silkscreen print on textile.
Like many boys growing up with their fathers on the periphery, we didn't talk much about feelings. Instead, the gym became a sanctuary, allowing us to connect as father and son. He thought it was his responsibility as a father to teach his son how to defend himself. Here, our bodies communicated, conveying what words often couldn't. Lessons were imparted through repetition, passing knowledge from one generation to the next.
My aim is to bring my medium and practice of photography into my father's arena: the dojo. As a way to reconnect with him by staging our relationship for the lens within the place where we learned to love through embodiment.
As the project unfolded, not knowing exactly where it was going, I started noticing a change. Through these staged movements and interviews with my father, it laid the foundation of a newfound connection and, by effect, a newfound empathy between us. The creative sphere we created allowed for us to reconnect without judgment.
Here, our worlds collided and combined, and the more our bodies performed for the camera, I became confronted with the fact that the time my father and I have together is limited, precious, and should be cherished. The project is not only about the two of us but acts as an invitation for the viewer to reflect on their own relationships with their parents and perhaps may spark some new conversations along the way.
HD two-channel video 07.24 min.
Silkscreen print on textile.
All content copyright ©2025 Alexander Namrok, all rights reserved.
REENVISIONED INTIMACY
2024This photographic project was born out of genuine curiosity about the diverse and intricate ways in which people in our modern world choose to form relationships. What different and new shapes can these relationships take? What boundaries and guidelines are necessary to keep them healthy? These were some of the questions I pondered as I began this project.
Together with couples and singles, my aim was to collaboratively explore these dynamics through staged portraits. Immersed in the intimacy of their homes, I asked the couples to articulate the key foundations and guidelines necessary for their unique relationship to thrive and be healthy. The interaction became a space for both them and me to reflect upon these questions, serving as a reciprocal learning experience.
The photographs offer a rare glimpse into the private workings of intimate connections and are intended to inspire each of us to contemplate how our own relationships function and, ultimately, how we can perhaps make them even better.
They serve as a fresh take on the myriad of possibilities that exist for humans to form meaningful connections, seek intimacy, and cultivate love. Emphasizing an approach that is open, honest, and nonjudgmental.
Together with couples and singles, my aim was to collaboratively explore these dynamics through staged portraits. Immersed in the intimacy of their homes, I asked the couples to articulate the key foundations and guidelines necessary for their unique relationship to thrive and be healthy. The interaction became a space for both them and me to reflect upon these questions, serving as a reciprocal learning experience.
The photographs offer a rare glimpse into the private workings of intimate connections and are intended to inspire each of us to contemplate how our own relationships function and, ultimately, how we can perhaps make them even better.
They serve as a fresh take on the myriad of possibilities that exist for humans to form meaningful connections, seek intimacy, and cultivate love. Emphasizing an approach that is open, honest, and nonjudgmental.
Exhibition view from The City Hall in The Hague April 2024.
All content copyright ©2025 Alexander Namrok, all rights reserved.
ALGORITHMIC LOVE
2023Algorithmic Love is an exploration of the impact of online dating, romance scams and the consequences it has for the victims. In these scams, criminals pretend to initiate a relationship via dating apps and websites with the intention to defraud their victims.
Using AI-generated images, real-life stories, and conversations between victims and scammers, my aim is to highlight how easy it is for anyone to be fooled online and how scammers have made dating into a lucrative business model.
The scammers specifically target people who are vulnerable, lonely and desperate. They overwhelm them with affectionate words and once the victim is in their grip it can be very difficult for them to let go of this new found love even though there are several red flags that suggest that something is off.
Not only is it a billion dollar industry but the scammers have also managed to create very sophisticated models which they use to trick their victims. Operating online means the criminals never run out of potential victims and it also makes it a challenge to catch and prosecute the perpetrators.
The project explores the ways in which scammers use romantic ideals of what love could look like. It gives insight into the ways they manipulate their victims using stolen identities, grooming techniques and other highly sophisticated methods of fraud.
People have lost their entire life savings, pensions and homes to these criminals. In their search for love they ended up losing everything. With this project I hope to create awareness around this pressing issue.
Using AI-generated images, real-life stories, and conversations between victims and scammers, my aim is to highlight how easy it is for anyone to be fooled online and how scammers have made dating into a lucrative business model.
The scammers specifically target people who are vulnerable, lonely and desperate. They overwhelm them with affectionate words and once the victim is in their grip it can be very difficult for them to let go of this new found love even though there are several red flags that suggest that something is off.
Not only is it a billion dollar industry but the scammers have also managed to create very sophisticated models which they use to trick their victims. Operating online means the criminals never run out of potential victims and it also makes it a challenge to catch and prosecute the perpetrators.
The project explores the ways in which scammers use romantic ideals of what love could look like. It gives insight into the ways they manipulate their victims using stolen identities, grooming techniques and other highly sophisticated methods of fraud.
People have lost their entire life savings, pensions and homes to these criminals. In their search for love they ended up losing everything. With this project I hope to create awareness around this pressing issue.
All content copyright ©2025 Alexander Namrok, all rights reserved.
THOUGHTS THAT KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT
2022It’s that tiny thought that creeps in on you when you lie sleepless at night. Once it has revealed itself it won’t let you go. What happens after I die? How will I die, will it be painful or will it be swift?
Most days death and the fact that I’m going to die doesn’t get much thought and is drowned out by the business of living life but there are certain days where I can’t stop thinking about it.
The uncertainty. Is it possible to let go of the fear of death and instead solely focus on being busy with life? Death is still the only certainty in life. As a species humans used to be sorrounded by death for most of history but now in our modern lives we do whatever it takes to shelter ourselves from death, the fact that we are going to die and even talking about tends to make people feel uncomfortable. Once we were able to answer these exsistential questions by flipping through the pages of a heavy black book but now we are left to our own devices and to come up with each our own answer to this large than life question. Whenever I dare try to come up with my own answer I keep on failing. Death is the ultimate question which I may never know the answer to.
Most days death and the fact that I’m going to die doesn’t get much thought and is drowned out by the business of living life but there are certain days where I can’t stop thinking about it.
The uncertainty. Is it possible to let go of the fear of death and instead solely focus on being busy with life? Death is still the only certainty in life. As a species humans used to be sorrounded by death for most of history but now in our modern lives we do whatever it takes to shelter ourselves from death, the fact that we are going to die and even talking about tends to make people feel uncomfortable. Once we were able to answer these exsistential questions by flipping through the pages of a heavy black book but now we are left to our own devices and to come up with each our own answer to this large than life question. Whenever I dare try to come up with my own answer I keep on failing. Death is the ultimate question which I may never know the answer to.
All content copyright ©2025 Alexander Namrok, all rights reserved.
A Complete Guide to Melting
2021Cyanotype print dyed with tea and coffee
Self published
The Hague, The Netherlands
Ever since the loss of religion in secular society we as humans and individuals have been searching for answers of our own. With the unlimited resources of the internet and the vast amount of self help books being published every year each promising to have the answers for your existential questions it can all be quite overwhelming.
Out of frustration I wanted to create my own guide that’s easy to follow and delivers on its promise: How to melt.
Out of frustration I wanted to create my own guide that’s easy to follow and delivers on its promise: How to melt.
All content copyright ©2025 Alexander Namrok, all rights reserved.