pete john
Conceptual Artist
Current Project
TWO WAYS OF BEING REAL
The same person. Two ways of being real.
TWO WAYS OF BEING REAL is a conceptual media work about perception, authenticity and judgement. It examines how we perceive people — and why we judge them before we understand them.
Each work consists of three parts: an analogue Polaroid series showing a person nude during a self-chosen everyday activity — deconstructed into unrepeatable individual pieces within twelve hours —, an unedited one-minute video of the same activity, clothed and observed from a threshold, and the portrayed person's own statement. This sequence is deliberate: it leads through a process in which it is not the work that changes, but your own perception.
“I do not photograph people. I create a stage on which they can show themselves.”
— pete john, from the artist statement
View works → · Read the full interview →
The first shoots are already underway in Cologne and Münster.
ONLY ONCE Analog Polaroid series — nude, a physical one-of-a-kind original. The first, wordless encounter.
FAMILIAR Digital film — clothed, moving. It does not change the person, it changes the way you look at them.
FOR ITSELF The portrayed person's own statement — not about themselves, from within themselves
You encounter a person. At first you only see the picture — you interpret, you fill in, you judge. Then you see the video: your gaze shifts, the nudity recedes, the person comes forward. Only then come the words — not the artist's, but their own. And all at once you notice: it is not the work that has changed, but your perception.
The project does not proclaim a message. It creates a moment in which you notice how your judgement forms — and whether you are willing to question it.
Stay in the loop
TWO WAYS OF BEING REAL is in the making — eight people, eight series. If you want to learn more, sign up: insights into the process, the launch of the first works and the 2027 exhibition, delivered by email first.
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About pete john
pete john is a conceptual artist with artistic roots in New York and Cologne. Since the 1990s his work has focused on people, bodies, spaces and the question of how we construct reality. His current works combine one-of-a-kind analog Polaroids, unedited moving images and the voices of the people portrayed into conceptual media works about perception, closeness and judgement — in a time when real, edited and artificially generated images have become almost impossible to tell apart. pete john lives and works in Germany. Alongside his conceptual practice, pete john is the bandleader of Alive Phönix.
Artist Statement
I do not photograph people. I create a stage on which they can show themselves.
In a time when images can be generated and interpreted at will, I am interested in how we construct reality. The Polaroid is the first, wordless encounter. The video does not change the person — it changes the way we look at them. Then the person speaks: not about themselves, but from within themselves.
I do not tell their story. I give it a stage. The people portrayed decide for themselves what they show and what their activity means to them.
The actual work does not come into being on the stage. It comes into being in the viewer — in the moment they recognise their own gaze and are willing to question it.
pete john in conversation about TWO WAYS OF BEING REAL →
Early Work
A small, exemplary selection of early street photography — long before the current project took shape.
Want to become part of the series yourself? All information and the application: petejohn.net/apply · Already part of it? Portal login