YANN STOFER - HOKKAIDO IS BLUE, WHITE AND GOLD

YANN STOFER
HOKKAIDO IS BLUE, WHITE AND GOLD

Published by Publisher/Gallery La Petite Semaine, 2022
Book size 24 × 32 cm
84 pages
Limited edition of 500 copies
ISBN 978-2-9584967-0-8

Three years ago, my friend Yann Stofer traveled up Japan from south to north. In Hokkaidō, through the roads and landscapes, he experienced total freedom allowing him to approach a highly poetic universe, as the snow has such fascinating powers. It modifies the visual and auditory field.

Still in film, Yann worked here with 24 × 36 and a 4 × 5 camera; these photos bear witness to his emotion and his rediscovered serenity. Under his gaze, the landscapes are reconstructed, they escape the earthly order. We dream of immersion, of nature at the top of our lungs. Yann had even more: Japan in its mysterious dimension.

Everything seems to take another form. A dried flower at the bend of a path is inscribed like an ideogram. Everything becomes graphic in this drift in which he let himself go. Niseko, Hakodate, Obihiro, Kushiro, Abashiri, Asahikawa, like so many lines of flight and pockets of time... We glide with him on the virgin and unmarked tracks of Asahidake, as if overcome by the magic of this country. His photographs bear witness to his marvelous abandonment: Hokkaidō is blue, white, golden.

Text by François Simon.

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Three years ago, my friend Yann Stofer traveled up Japan from south to north. In Hokkaido, through the roads and landscapes, he experienced total freedom that allowed him to approach a highly poetic universe, as snow has fascinating powers. It changes the visual and auditory fields.

Still in film, Yann worked here at 24 × 36 and at the 4 × 5 view camera; these photos are the testimony of his emotion and his newfound serenity. Under his gaze, the landscapes are reconstructed, they escape the earthly order. We dream of immersion, of nature at full lungs. Yann had even more: Japan in its mysterious dimension.

Everything seems to take on another form. A dried flower at the bend of a path is inscribed like an ideogram. Everything becomes graphic in this drift to which he has let himself go. Niseko, Hakodate, Obihiro, Kushiro, Abashiri, Asahikawa, like so many lines of flight and pockets of time... We slide with him on the virgin and unmarked tracks of Asahidake, as if overwhelmed by the magic of this country. His photographs bear witness to his amazed abandonment: Hokkaidō is blue, white, golden.

Text by François Simon.