2020 IB Extended Essays

application of detailed photographic layering creates images with aesthetically

flawless compositions. This technique is what makes Cook’s work more comparable

to paintings than conventional photography.

Michael Cook, Invasion (Finale), 2017.

In Cook’s photographs the tables are turned on the relationship between different

races, where the bleak burst of colour within the primarily monochrome photograph reminds viewers that there are many shades between black and white. In realising the reality of the world that Cook creates, the audience is able to acknowledge the intergenerational economic and social disadvantage Indigenous Australians have had to endure since colonisation.

Michael Cook, Invasion (Laser girls), 2017.