For ‘The Kiss Book’, Tove Lo asked 600 people to kiss in a crowd. Here are the results
Kissing is intimate, primal and emotional. Musical artist Tove Lo and photographer Kenny Laubbacher celebrate the act in a new book
What’s in a kiss? Quite a lot, actually. Intimacy, attraction, reassurance, love – kissing is a raw and primal way of searching for that elusive human connection.
Post-pandemic, the act of kissing became more vital than ever; laced with caution, it epitomised a shared trust in an unstable environment. It is a shift that fascinates Sweden-born, Los Angeles-based musical artist Tove Lo and photographer Kenny Laubbacher, who captured more than 600 candid moments of people kissing during Tove Lo’s 2023 ‘Dirt Femme’ tour.
The Kiss Book, shot across 15 countries and 18 cities, documents the results of crowds of tour attendees being asked to kiss. ‘All pictures were taken soon after the world fully reopened following the pandemic, when kissing and dancing in sweaty crowds still felt surreal and a little forbidden,’ the duo say. ‘This added a level of ecstasy to these moments and you can feel that energy in the photos.’
The photographs are a mash-up of hands, faces and embraces. There’s couples, throuples, crowds of friends and, occasionally, a disgruntled onlooker. Throughout, affection takes shape in the playful and the passionate. In their unflinching zooming in on a moment that is usually private, the photographs are always moving.
The tome's designers, creative director Charlie Twaddle with Samuel Burgess Johnson, intertwine these enduring elements through the book’s seductive red design. They say: ‘The choice of red as a colour serves as a symbol for flesh, while the red page edges reflect on the biblical concept of original sin in a “post distancing” society.’
The Kiss Book, £50, from Baron Books
