KEIICHI TAHARA – SENSE OF LIGHT
Galerie &co119 is delighted to inaugurate an exhibition devoted to the Japanese photographer and artist, Keiichi Tahara.
“I really want to catch the light”, Keiichi Tahara, 2014.09 for Les Echos.
It has been almost a year since the Japanese artist Keiichi Tahara left us. From landscapes to fashion photography, from portraits to still life, but also from sculptures to installations, Tahara defines himself above all as a “sculptor of light”.
His connection to France is what we thing to highlight in this exhibition 'Sens de Lumière'. “We used to say he was the most French Japanese photographer”, remembers Jean-Luc Monterosso, co-founder and director (1996 – March 2018) of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.
Born in Kyoto in 1951, he is with his grandfather, a professional photographer, who he discovered photography at the age of 12. Furthermore, It is his grandfather who would offer young Keiichi his first camera, an Asahi Pentax, in 1965. While pursuing his art studies, Tahara produced several short films, however it is not until 1973 that his photography career really came into being.
Following a theater troupe on their European tour, Tahara makes the decision to stay in France, where he moves into a small room under the roofs tops of Paris in the neighborhood of Saint-Michel. There, alone and with no command of the language, he starts photographing the view from the window of his little attic. What begins as a way of connecting the outside and the inside world, and to himself would become later one of his most renowned series, Fenêtres (Windows). He later wins the Grand Prix des Jeunes Photographes in Arles in 1977 and subsequently begins a long series of portraits of artists, intellectuals and art personalities (most of them French or based in France), which are exhibited alongside some of the Windows.
Keiichi Tahara eventually ended up staying in France for more than 30 years.
It is with the Portraits series that one can grasp the extent of young Tahara's personal trajectory. From a young student isolated in his small room, the one who wanted to make a connection to the outside world won his venture: 5 years later, he faces the greatest names of the art world of his time and tries to connect them to a wider world. Working in series, Tahara connects each of her subjects to one another. They are now all part of the big family of artists who posed for him. Ultimately, this series is about all the anonymous and multiple associations that photography allows. Because isn't it, in the end, the great potential of photography to show to a larger public the image of all these individuals, influential for their art or their actions, but whose face remains unknown?
Orchestrating or re-orchestrating, Tahara stages his subjects in their living spaces. Reflections, playing hide and seek with light, shadow and forms. Bare or overflowing environments, the photographer multiplies the possibilities. It is also often by diptychs or triptychs that the portraits were imagined. Nothing is carved in stone. The associations are open, the images are fluid. And in this very flexibility of which the works are presented we recognize Tahara's subtle message: just as light has a thousand faces, and as its orientation changes at every moment of the day, nothing in the living and in the people that he photographed has only one story, one same face. Everything is complex and beautiful in the plurality of its directions and possibilities.
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Galerie &co119 is pleased to inaugurate an exhibition dedicated to Japanese photographer and artist Keiichi Tahara.
“I really want to catch the light.” – Keiichi Tahara, September 2014 for Les Echos.
It's been almost a year since Japanese artist Keiichi Tahara left us. Moving from landscape photography to fashion photography, from portraiture to still life, then from sculpture to installations, Tahara defined himself above all as a "sculptor of light".
His connection with France is what we have decided to highlight today. " It was often said that he was the most French of Japanese photographers ," recalls Jean-Luc Monterosso, co-founder and director of the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) from 1996 to March 2018.
Born in Kyoto in 1951, he discovered photography at the age of 12, alongside his grandfather, a professional photographer. It was he who gave him his first camera, an Asahi Pentax, in 1965. Continuing his art studies where he began by making short films, his career as a photographer truly began in 1973. Following a theater troupe on a European tour, he decided to stay in France, where he settled into a maid's room in the Saint-Michel district. There, alone, not speaking French, he began to photograph the view from the window of his home. What began as a way to connect the outside to the inside, and to himself, would become one of his most famous series: “Windows”. He subsequently won the Grand Prix des Jeunes Photographes in Arles in 1977 and the following year began a long series of portraits of artists, intellectuals and influential people, which we exhibit here alongside the “Fenêtres”. He ultimately remained in France for more than 30 years.
It is through the series of portraits that we realize the personal path taken by the young photographer. This young student isolated in his studio, the one who wanted to establish a connection with the outside world, succeeded in his bet: five years later, he is facing the greatest artists of his time and tries to connect them in turn to something larger. By taking the step of registering them in a series, Tahara links them in a way to each other. They are now all part of the large family of intellectuals who have passed before the photographer's lens. And far beyond that, it is about all the anonymous and multiple connections that photography allows. Because is it not one of the great powers of photography: to show to a wider audience the image of these characters so recognized for their works and their actions, but whose face remains so unknown?
Placing them, moving them, Tahara enjoys staging these personalities. Games of reflections, games of hide-and-seek with spots of light, suggestions of shapes in the corners of an image or a shadow, a busy or bare environment, the photographer multiplies the clues. It is often by diptychs or triptychs that these portraits are presented. However, nothing is fixed. The options are multiple, the images mobile. And in this very flexibility of the presentation of the works, we recognize the subtlety of Keiichi Tahara's purpose: as light has a thousand facets and whose orientation never ceases to move throughout a day, nothing in the living, and in the human being he photographs, is a single story, a single facet. Everything makes sense, everything is meaning, everything has a meaning. All in all, everything has a multitude of meanings.