Emon Photo Gallery presents the latest private work by Osamu Yokonami as he revisits his enchantment with the number 1000, gained upon viewing the thousand statues of the thousand-armed deity–Kannon–in the Hall of the Lotus King in Kyoto. Seen all together, the neutral expressions on the faces of 1000 children captured by Yokonami begin to betray their underlying emotions, and the near-identical composition of each photo unmasks the vibrant individuality inherent in each child. EMON Photo Gallery invites one and all to enjoy this ambitious exhibit featuring motion picture and installation art. 

When I laid eyes upon the one thousand statues of the goddess Kannon residing in the Hall of the Lotus King in Kyoto, I was overwhelmed to the point of speechlessness, and my conviction in the number one thousand was cemented. After completing my 100 Children series, I felt I wanted to increase the number of subjects in an attempt to wordlessly express the strength of the individual and the strength of the group more effectively, leading me to start towards my target of one thousand children around four years ago. 

One discovery on the way to this revised target was that upon grouping new photos together with the older ones according to similar facial features, I was able to classify the children into six or seven distinct patterns according to physical appearance. Upon consultation with an expert in the field of anthropology, I learned that although it apparently has no bearing on physical appearance, the DNA of Japanese people can be separated into seven basic varieties. 

As the individual photo shoots began piling up and increasing in number, I exerted my utmost concentration not to let that ‘gap’ between the innocent gaze of each child and the camera lens escape. My original concept of homogenizing the outward appearance–dressing each child the same, giving them the same pose, the same background, with the contradictory purpose of highlighting true individuality–has been amplified. The power of individuality, the power of one hundred people, the power of one thousand people, and the power of a group of people with similar features, I invite you to come and sense all these for yourselves.
- 2014.03 Osamu Yokonami 

*image (left)
© Osamu Yokonami 
courtesy of the artist and Emon Photo Gallery