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Osamu Yokonami:1000 Children
Events
Published: March 14 2014

©Osamu Yokonami

Emon Photo Gallery presents 1000 Children, the latest work by photographer Osamu Yokonami, beginning April 25.
In conjunction with a career in advertising and fashion photography, Yokonami's private work of late has consisted of portraits of children holding fruit. After his previous series of 100 children’s portraits, Yokonami became enchanted with the number 1000 upon viewing the thousand statues of the thousand-armed deity Kannon in the Hall of the Lotus King in Kyoto.
Yokonami’s latest work is an expansion of his previous series, 100 Children, extending his subject matter to one thousand over the past six years. One thousand children standing with their heads tilted at a certain angle‒a gesture commonly held to insinuate nonchalance‒were shot one by one together with ten varieties of fruit. When all together, the neutral expressions on the faces captured by Yokonami begin to betray the children's underlying emotions. The lack of an overarching narrative creates an ‘interdependent subjectivity’ where the emotional aspect of each child depends on that of the other children.
EMON Photo Gallery invites one and all to enjoy the various innovative ideas, including motion picture and installation art that are to feature in the first exhibition of Yokonami's ambitious new work.

[作家コメント]
「 1000 Children」

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

[作家プロフィール]
Osamu Yokonami

1967 Born in Kyoto
1987 Studied at the Osaka Visual Arts College
1989 Joined the photography dept.
at the Bunka Publishing Bureau
1990 Studied under photographer Kazuyoshi Nakagomi
1994 Began activities as an independent photographer

Exhibitions
2007 Innocent at EMON Photo Gallery
2009 100 Children at EMON Photo Gallery
2012 Assembly at Shibuya Gallery
2013 Assembly at De Soto gallery (L.A.)
2013 De Soto gallery (L.A.)
2014 Sophie Maree Gallery (Holland)

Publications
2007 Nannokenai
2009 100 Children
2012 Assembly
2014 1000 Children

Opening Reception Apr 25th, 2014 (fri) 18:00-20:00


全文提供:EMON PHOTO GALLERY
会期:2014.04.25fri → 05.30fri
時間:11:00~19:00 sat.11:00~18:00
closed on sunday and holidays
会場:EMON PHOTO GALLERY
Last Updated on April 25 2014
 

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