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Ryudai TAKANO
Reviews
Written by Mizuki TANAKA   
Published: December 16 2009

fig. 1  From "Otoko-no-norikata" series (2007); Type C print, copyright © Ryudai Takano, curtesy: Yumiko Chiba Associates/Zeit-Foto Salon

fig. 2  From "Otoko-no-norikata" series (2006); C print, copyright © Ryudai Takano, curtesy: Yumiko Chiba Associates/Zeit-Foto Salon

    The exhibition entitled Otoko-no-Nori-kata was held at GALLERY at lammfromm in Uehara, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.  This was a solo exhibition of the photographer, Ryudai Takano, who takes pictures of male nudes.  His past creations include photos which made viewers conscious of sexuality, such as pictures of men in the same poses as those of female nudes depicted in western paintings, as well as photos of male genitalia taken at close range, and pictures which raised objections to the existing “common” perspective of both sexes.  This exhibition started just in time for the release of Takano’s photo album named Otoko-no-Nori-kata. This album presented photos selected by Takano himself from his works taken between 2003 and 2009.  Although this exhibition showed only his past creations, I perceived a new attitude of Takano’s towards photography in the way he chose the photos to be exhibited.
    In the venue, there were the “in my room” series composed of four photos and two works of the “untitled” series in addition to the “Otoko-no-Nori-kata” series (the same title as the exhibition) which were made up of seven creations.  All the photos were taken of male nudes or bodies partly covered with clothes.  The objects were taken from under their eyes or from their backs, and we could view only their bodies and legs.  Most exhibits had one thing in common in that they made us feel a certain distance between the objects and the photographer. The color of backgrounds of the all creations was white.  White walls and sheets were found in backgrounds of almost all the exhibits.  In each photo, the man who was the main object of the picture is lying on a sheet.  Probably, it may have been due to Takano’s intention to generate sexual images in his photos, but the exhibits did not give me an impression that they had been taken in a private bedroom.  The sheets did not evoke for me any soft images peculiar to bedclothes.  Actually, in some photos, a small part of a wooden floor could be found under the sheets.  These sheets were wrinkled up naturally, which contributed to excluding any fastidious impression or extremely inorganic images from his photos.  Accorndingly, these exhibits made viewers pay attention to the objects – the men – lying naturally.  One of photos was taken of the lower torso of man who was looking away from the viewer with his legs crossed  This picture reminded me of the Olympia (1863, Musée d’Orsay), by the French painter, Édouard Manet, in the 19th century.  In another picture, a man was sitting up while stretching out his legs casually with black socks on.  Nevertheless, as I have already mentioned above, all the objects were photographed from behind their backs or under the level of their eyes.  This made me feel as if the objects were somewhat akin to “things” possessing no feelings.  The objects gave me such an impression more intensely when I noticed that their skin had no wrinkles, which evokes for me an image of the accumulation of life.

    Having no face seems to be suggest namelessness.  In fact, with the photographs exhibited here, without examining them very carefully, it proved difficult to determine whether they had been taken of the same man or not. Indeed, the well-worn jeans and old socks in the photos stirred the imagination as to the characters of men who wore them, but it proved impossible to form a clear image of any of these men due to the fact that the all the objects lacked any faces.
    In the exhibition which was held at ZEIT-FOTO SALON in Kyobashi, Tokyo, in 2006, with the same title as that of this exhibition, extremely large-sized photographs were displayed.  All the pictures were life-size male nudes.  The entire bodies of the objects were photographed in conscious poses often found in paintings.  The men turned their faces to the camera and looked expressively at their viewers.  Various kinds of feelings of fresh-and-blood people, some unsettling and some amusing, were captured in these photos.  Nonetheless, in the exhibition this time, despite its being held as part of the Otoko-no-Nori-kata series, the size of the exhibits was similar to that of square-shaped family photo albums.  They were so small as to make us feel as if we could hold them in our hands.  The exhibits seemed like a private collection secretly kept by one individual.
    Men who give viewers symbolic images due to the loss of their faces, and detailed parts of their bodies which fire our imaginations about their individual characters - continuously taking pictures of “men” may be the same thing as fractionally collecting something other than a personal face and name.  After viewing all the creations shown in this exhibition, we were made conscious of things which had been experienced by Takano himself continues when taking pictures of men.  Takano’s various kinds of activities, such as taking pictures of not only men, but also of landscapes and recently creating works based on fixed-point observation, seem to have broadened the range of his expression of “men” or “human beings”.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)

Last Updated on October 20 2015
 

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