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Ari Hatsuzawa:Modernism 2011-2012 Tohoku - Tokyo - North Korea
Events
Published: October 15 2012

 

Tokyo Gallery + BTAP is pleased to announced an exhibition entitled Ari Hatsuzawa Photo Exhibition “Modernism 2011–2012 Tohoku-Tokyo-North Korea”.

Ari Hatsuzawa was born in Paris, France in 1973. After graduating from the sociology department at the Faculty of Humanities of Sophia University, he attended the 13th Corpus photography workshop held at Asbestos-kan. Subsequently, he worked at Iino Hiroo studio before launching his career in Tokyo as a freelance photographer. In addition to handling photography for fashion shoots and photogravure prints, Hatsuzawa travels to war zones, disaster-hit areas, and developing countries around the world to shoot the everyday landscapes of the people who live there, actively showing his work in a variety of formats, focusing on photography books and publications.

Hatsuzawa’s journey began in Baghdad, in 2003, just before the outbreak of the war in Iraq. The scenes that caught the gaze of his camera maintain a distinct contrast to the tension-filled documentary style that comes from the front lines of press reportage. The images he captures are honest portrayals of the everyday life of the people who live there – manual laborers relaxing over a billiard game, lovers exchanging sweet nothings with a Pepsi in hand. These scenes are the exact opposite of the danger and high-strung tension that most people would associate with the subjects of a cameraman bound for a war zone. Though plagued by a variety of restrictions and inconveniences, the daily lives of these Baghdad residents are spirited and affectionate. As Hatsuzawa recalls, “it seems as if they were savoring life without having a healthy dose of freedom to spare.”

Subsequently, Hatsuzawa’s travels were guided by a string of coincidences. He revisited Baghdad, went to North Korea, and the Tohoku region of Japan in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Ari Hatsuzawa has been to North Korea four times. He went to Pyongyang on two of these trips, and toured the countryside during his two other visits there. As for Eastern Japan, he has been going there every month, starting just after the earthquake up until now. Tokyo is his home base, the city where he launched his career as a photographer.

This photography exhibition showcases works that capture these three places. A photograph demands a subject, which exists in a particular place and time ¬– the context of the everyday that we live in. Everyday life can be found everywhere you look, but each of these everyday contexts is different. It is this discrepancy that gives rise to various gaps and fault lines, and allows us to discover our own vision of the everyday. By traveling to witness each one of these everyday contexts, Hatsuzawa extracts the essence of the everyday that he was raised and grew up with. Photography is perhaps the artistic medium that is best suited to expressing this notion. Perhaps this all started when he photographed Baghdad. Our concept of the everyday is an extension of the notion of the modern, which began some 200 years ago. What has become of modernism today? This is the question that Hatsuzawa poses to us, through works that depict North Korea, Eastern Japan, and Tokyo. This technique and concept are at the core of Hatsuzawa’s art. (Hozu Yamamoto, Director of Tokyo Gallery+BTAP)


This exhibition showcases an installation of around 80 photographs, each measuring some three meters across, filling the walls of the gallery. They include some of his most recent works that continue to expand the horizons of a category that is distinct from press photography. We look forward to welcoming you at this exhibition.

[作家プロフィール]
Ari Hatsuzawa
Born in Paris, France in 1973. Graduated from the sociology department at the Faculty of Humanities of Sophia University. Alumnus of the 13th Corpus photography workshop. After working at Iino Hiroo studio, he launched his career as a freelance photographer. Hatsuzawa travels to war zones, disaster-hit areas, and developing countries around the world to shoot the everyday landscapes of the people who live there, actively showing his work in a variety of formats, focusing on photography books and publications.

Exhibition
・「Tokyo Poésie」Shinjyuku Nikon Salon(2000)
・「humanité」AKI-EX GALLERY (2001)
・「Baghdad」AKI-EX GALLERY (2003)
・「AM 5:00, Tokyo, 200 Portlaits at ARIKA ART SITE」ARIKA ART SITE (2007)
・「True Feelings」ARTE GIAPPONE MIRANO (2012)
Publish
・「Baghdad 2003」Sotensha(2003)
・「True Feelings」Sanei-Shobo(2012)
・「neighbors」Tokuma Shoten Publishing (will be available in November )


全文提供:TOKYO GALLERY + BTAP | TOKYO
会期:2012.10.4 (Thurs) - 10.30 (Tues)
時間:11:00 - 19:00 (Sat. - 17:00)
closed on Sun., Mon., national holidays
会場:TOKYO GALLERY + BTAP | TOKYO
Last Updated on October 04 2012
 

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