For the opening exhibition of its new space in Paris, in the heart of Le Marais, Taka Ishii Gallery showcases the works of photographer Shomei Tomatsu. A selection of photographs from the 60’s and 70’s renders the talent of this man who is unanimously considered as the father of contemporary Japanese photography. Scenes of everyday life, expressive faces or silent and endless landscapes, Shomei Tomatsu’s photographs, taken in Tokyo, Kawasaki and Okinawa Islands – where he chose to spend the end of his life, until passing away in December 2012 – are nothing but open windows on Japan and its suspended time.
Regarded as one of the greatest photographers of our time, praised by his contemporaries such as Daido Moriyama, Shomei Tomatsu invented a new perspective. As he gave a humanist dimension to post-war Japan, he managed to create an harmony between poetry and politics. Born in 1930, he witnessed the upheavals that his country went through after Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear drama. In fact, the photographs he started taking in 1961 of disfigured faces and desolate landscapes due to the bomb contributed to make him famous. These by-now mythical images are monuments of humility and emotion. At the same time, in Tokyo, his lens was drawn to students’ protest movements. From that time, his photography became the encounter of a very distinct aesthetics and of contemporary themes. Then, from 1969 in Okinawa Islands, headquarters of the largest concentration of American bases, this convinced pacifist started to take an interest in the “Americanization” of Japan, which, according to him, formed the most striking feature of the post-war years.
Great master of black and white, unbalanced frames and close-ups became the main elements of Tomatsu’s artistic vocabulary. Whether he focuses on the wrinkles of someone’s face or on the ripples of a sparkling sea, the artist manages to create a tension that is both powerful and calm. Photographer of the wound, even of the waste, he offers a poignant vision of finitude and time.
While regularly adding some text to his photographs, he enjoys describing his practice as a simple but intense “desire to see”. In his work called Taiyo no enpitsu (Pencil of the sun) published in 1975, he wrote: « Photographers are not doctors who cure, lawyers who defend, intellectuals who analyze, priests who offer moral support, storytellers who entertain, signers who raise enthusiasm. They don’t do anything else but look. That’s well enough, that’s all. For a photographer, the look is the key. That’s why the photographer must look at everything that exists, from the beginning to the end. The photographer observes reality head-on, turning his whole body into an eye when he looks at the world ».
It’s this singular look that Taka Ishii Gallery invites you to discover and re-discover today, through a thorough selection of photo prints which bears witness to the freedom and strength of Shomei Tomatsu’s work.
