For Michael Cook, photography is a way to reimagine and rewrite. His work questions what was, what is, and what could have been. Conditioned, the Bidjara artist’s first book for Perimeter Editions, draws on key series from the past decade to open histories and imaginaries simmering between Indigenous and European perspectives.

Cook’s practice is almost cinematic, using the camera as a choreographic and narrative tool, layering and editing countless shoots. The results are quietly virtuosic: soft, painterly tones and meticulous compositions frame historical pathos, speculative futures, and unrestrained what-ifs. His images shift between the sumptuous and the stark, the historical and the playful.

Across Conditioned’s lush plates—interspersed with abstracted text—Cook guides us through Indigenous parliamentary takeovers, European luxury shopping sprees, autobiographical asides, and colonial inversions, where Aboriginal figures become alien invaders and supersized Australian wildlife roam London streets. It is a journey of reflection, resistance, and imagination.