Kiss/Hierarchy

Poetry. Art. With her allusions to fine art and her own impeccable sense of color and texture, one might be tempted to say that Alexandra van de Kamp has a painter's eye. But that cliché would overlook the exquisite temporal dramas she attends to with such relish: no, hers is a cinematographer's vision, one deeply invested in what lies before and after, in and around and beneath her generous panoramas. KISS/HIERARCHY is a book of romances and transformations. It evokes the passions that lead us into darkened theaters and from there into the intrigues and enchantments of great film. On one hand van de Kamp resuscitates the golden age of Hollywood, and on the other she imbues everything she studies, even mammograms and head colds, doll furniture and devoured tulips, with the glossy, resonating power of an auteur's gaze."—George David Clark