Born in Tokyo in 1991. Resides in Tokyo. Second generation Korean newcomer (her parents came to Japan in the 1980s). Uses photography and video to portray her own personal history
within the contexts of personal relationships and time. Attemptsto incorporate into her work the conflict of feeling of seeking roots in the relationship with the land that still continues even after being separated from history and language conditioned by a nation state. Major works include “Strait” (group photos from 2013 - 2015), which she produced while visiting her grandmother in Busan, Korea, “Saudade Project” (video, 2019 -), which she produced
while traveling in search of places family photos were taken, and “Searching for Images” (video, 2020 ‒ 2121), which reexamines the relationship between the individual and community (family and country) as a man searches for his mother. Graduated from the
Department of Photography at Tokyo Polytechnic University and obtained a MA from the Department of New Media, Graduate School of film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts.
The origin of the motion picture is attributed to a number of 19th century contrivances that made otherwise still pictures look as though they were moving to the eye. Photography, on the other hand, can actually trace its roots back to the pinhole principle from the 5th century BC, which was then improved in the 15th century with the advent of the camera obscura and eventually led to the first photograph ever taken in 1826 by Joseph Niépce. So, photography and film have different beginnings, nevertheless we live in a world today where anyone can take pictures and shoot movies by just pressing a button from a single device, as it is a given that digital cameras and smartphones – the tools people use most to take photos -- come with movie recording capabilities.
Enter the creator who mixes and matches the features and expressive power of photography and film into new content. Though having shown movies in the past using 4K TVs and projectors, Sony Imaging Gallery newly set up a short video category and also began a short video search with a call for creators public in August 2021. This first-ever video exhibition is the result of that and features the following creators.
Kiyoshiro Tatekawa is showing his “Selected Remix from My First Three-Year Plan Series”—an experimental film project he has edited by superimposing images and adding animation and sound to photographs and film captured from a stationary camera. Set in zoos, Tatekawa presents animals, as he explains, “through the simple sensorial expressions many people use to describe what they see, like ‘It’s so cute!’, ‘It’s huge!’ and ‘It stinks!’” As he sees it, “It’s very similar to an experimental film where you use your consciousness and senses to appreciate zoos because they tend to stimulate the senses more than trigger a verbal reaction.”
In his “Compound Eye (8 pieces put together)”, Yuta Nagashima focusses on today’s growing diversity, which is causing everyone to see things differently. He analogizes how people view the world differently to seeing with compound eyes, by presenting what people see like parallel universes.
garland got into film in 2016 when he happened across 4K definition. His “Past Light” is a three-part film where he espouses his thoughts of life and death through themes of “Heaven”, “Earth” and “In-between”. The world he portrays is like a “motion picture”.
Hwajin Lee is showing two segments (Izu segment and Niigata – Yongon in Korea segment) from her “Saudade Project”, which she made while traveling in search of places where her family had taken photos. One thing this work will do is to remind those who have had a moment of uncertainty as to whether a memory of a place was actually a memory or something one recalled secondarily from a photo or movie and will eventually forget about.
Film and photography will certainly continue to evolve each in its own way. But, will that be like a parallel universe where you can easily come and go with just the touch of a button like is done today, or will it look like something else? That is something Sony Imaging Gallery will ponder alongside our visitors when viewing what creators are producing.