Photoworks - Autumn/Winter 09/10

This issue of photoworks is devoted to relatively unknown Japanese photographers and their work, much of which has been produced in the form of photobooks rather than as prints for a gallery. This means that much of it needs to be looked a in context and in order rather than as individual images. It is therefore inevitable, that as only a small selection of any of the whole books are shown, some of the impact will be lost.

I have seen very little Japanese photography and am looking at it with an eye attuned to western culture which will effect the way I interpret the photos. I also became aware that I interpreted them differently than the reviewers, often in a more simplistic way. Next time I look at a book like this i think it is important to look at the images first – then read the review!. One picture where I had a markedly different instant understanding was in the work of Osama Wataya where the reviewer (Gordon MacDonald says ‘The most uncomfortable image……… is one of a man whose flesh seems to be melting from his body like wax’ (Gordon MacDonald, Photoworks 2009. p52. ). This image shows me a man who, in spite of his problems, walks down the street with his head held high. This difference may be because I work with people with a disability on a daily basis. Unlike MacDonald this man did not make me think of the atomic bombs, although I agree that it does show immense suffering.

Osamu Wataya - from Rumor

The images that I would most like to see more of were by Ariko, a Japanese photographer, who has taken pictures of Iceland to create pictures that are calm, with  a great sense of light and space. These images remind me of those by Dan Holdsworth ( seen earlier at the Baltic Gallery), which, although showing much more detail – have the same sense of light and calm.

Ariko - Swan Feather

Overall, this edition of Photoworks, although dedicated to Japanese photography shows a wide variety of images, some beautiful and others disturbing. It is clear that a simple label of Japanese does not immediately give an expectation of one ‘type’ of image, any more than British or American would. It is an area I will need to explore further.

Dan Holdsworth–Blackout

Dan Holdsworth 1974 –.(http://www.danholdsworth.com)  is a contempory photographer who studied in London. He has had several solo and joint exhibitions. The latest is ‘Blackout’ at the Baltic Centre in Newcastle. It consists of a series series of 21 large-scale (226 x 177 cm) c-prints of  the other-worldly glaciers in Iceland that have taken up to a year to process and show detailed images with a black sky and an intense contrast with the mainly white or pale blue of the glaciers. The impact of the images is enormous and clearly demonstrates the cold and isolated nature that has been photographed. The effect is magical and overwhelming when standing surrounded by them.

I have recently been reading ‘the photograph as contempory art’ by Charlotte Cotton and am trying to work out what category this image fits into. It is certainly contempory and definitely ‘art’, well, beautiful,stunning and seen hanging on a gallery wall.  I think the description the fits most closely is ‘Deadpan’. This is described by Charlotte Cotton as ‘a cool, detached and keenly sharp type of photography’ with ‘monumental scale and breath-taking visual clarity.’ and ‘photography as a way of seeing beyond the limitations of individual perspective, a way of mapping the extent of forces, invisible from a single human standpoint, that govern the man-made and natural world.’ (Cotton, the photograph as contempory art, Chapter 3).