When Rick Owens asked Paul Kooiker to shoot a look book, he only had one stipulation: “Do what you want, you’ve got carte blanche, but sometimes put a shoe in the image.” Kooiker is laughing as he recounts the story, but it’s clear he doesn’t do creative compromise.

Having built up a successful career over the past 30 years – including award wins, major exhibitions, and artwork in various museum collections – the artist and photographer found, perhaps to his surprise, that he was becoming a favourite of the fashion world. The Rick Owens look book was his first significant job in the industry – Owens had already been selling art books by Kooiker in his stores, but it was quickly followed by work for brands including Acne, Hermès and Craig Green.

“For me it’s almost as basic as: there’s a set, there’s a model, and there are some clothes, and that’s the fashion part of it,” says Kooiker. “But there’s freedom to make my own work. I feel that fashion is almost an extra, but an important extra. The strange thing is that when I started in fashion four years ago, I never felt limited. I never felt like, ‘Oh, I cannot do my own thing’, so I always feel comfortable in fashion. And that’s surprising for me… People come to me when they want my style and my kind of photography, and it’s lucky that happens. I don’t have to change myself into a different photographer. I can do my own thing.”