Orie Ichihashi. Born in 1978. Graduated from Musashino Art University and began working as a freelance photographer in 2001. She is now active in the fields of advertizing, magazines and television commercials, and drew attention for being selected as the camera operator for the film Honokaa Boy released last year. Her monograph Gift was published in the same year, exemplifying her diverse output that go beyond the boundaries of genres. Her first exhibition, the culmination of a decade’s work, will be presented here in Hiroo.

“Transparent photography”. Her photographic style which has not altered since her debut, appears to have been at the center of a trend that encompassed diverse media. Gift is at first sight a work that exists as an extension of her commissioned works that are characterized by their pureness. However, what the sensitive light and air that linger in those private works actually capture is a highly personal emotional realm.

Snap shots of pale tones have been produced in abounding quantities in perhaps typically postmodern manner, eclipsing the so to say more intense photography. The pale tones were facilely praised being equated to purity, demonstrating this era’s ambiguous romanticism. Ichihashi’s private works however, cannot simply be pigeonholed as superficially gentle and beautiful. Her photographs embody an attempt to salvage the reality that arises at a certain place and about which she feels an unstoppable urge to arrest, with a gaze empowered by restraint. In the colors of Gift, a body of work composed of sceneries encountered during traveling or in her daily life, one can discern another frame superimposed onto the photographs, that of Ichihashi’s deepest self. Such frames emit a slight vibration that wash away all abrasive matter and help the viewers find peace in themselves. It may also happen to the viewer to sense sound. The colors transposed into sound, reach us as deep harmonic tones composed of a myriad of layers of superimposed sounds.

Ichihashi’s gaze, it is soul.
Her photographs capture the whole, but refuse to show everything.
This is Ichihashi’s true talent.
“When I feel that this is it, I only release the shutter once and that’s it”, smiles Ichihashi, summarizing her economical “energy-saving” manner of taking photographs. It is a moment in which the dainty and carefree photographer betrays her aspect of a tough hunter who preys for the moment straying all nerves. The pastel colors and the constructional compositions of her works do not easily let the viewers be deeply involved with them. But it is rare to encounter photography that enables such deep recognition. Her gift to us is the very importance of “seeing” and “feeling” that is directly delivered to us.