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Photographers of Japan Vol.16 "Ogawa Takayuki (1938 - 2008) – explorer of “shape” through photography"
With dreams of becoming an independent photographer, Ogawa left Bungeishunju Ltd. in 1965. After becoming freelance, he and his wife Wakako moved to New York in April 1967. Until their return in March of 68, Ogawa took photographs of the city and its residents as society was being shaken by the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. He turned his camera towards anti-war groups and Harlem’s Black community, and met photographers like Magnum Photos’ Bruce Davidson and Robert Frank, who achieved legendary status with his photo collection, “The Americans” (1959). After returning to Japan, Ogawa compiled his New York photos into a series called “New York Is” and in August 1968 presented them at a solo exhibition at Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo). This series was also used for a 32-page special edition in the September issue of Camera Mainichi the same year. In 1969, he presented “New York Is” at a solo exhibition at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, cementing it as his representative work. In retrospect, “New York Is” clearly shows Ogawa’s explorations and experiments as a photographer. These explorations encompassed a variety of points like composition, shutter speed, and subject - one of the most important of these points became the “shape” created by subjects in the image. When observing his photos, it’s always surprising how masterfully he cuts out such a beautiful “shape” from the chaos of New York City. After returning to Japan, Ogawa continued to hone and evolve his craft even while working as a commercial photographer. There are several photographs which brilliantly display Ogawa’s keen sense of beauty regarding “shape”. These include the photos he took of “Chair of Light” (1969) and “64 Book Shelves” (1972), works by Kuramata Shiro, the interior designer who made furniture with principles of contemporary art. Both of these photos beautifully draw out the minimal “shape” from the super-abstracted furniture and transform into a photograph imbued with aspects of performance. With these, Ogawa shows us a high quality, accurate interpretation of Kuramata’s design theory through the medium of photography. Later, Ogawa continued his development as a photographer. After being diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 1995 and undergoing surgery, he used photogram methods to create a series of works superimposing images of his body on X ray scans of his own tumor and photos of plants. This series, “Beyond the Mirror”, was shown at a solo exhibition at the Houston Center for Photography in 1998 and was part of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum’s “Loves’ Body - the new generation of nude photos” exhibition the same year.
BacknumberVol.16 "Ogawa Takayuki (1938 - 2008) − explorer of “shape” through photography"Vol.15 "Kitai Kazuo - Capturing “a scene I once saw…”" Vol.14 "Kazama Kensuke" Vol.13 "Narahara Ikko - Double Vision" Vol.12 "Q Ei and
Vol.11 "Fukuhara Shinzo 1883-1948 -- Japanese Landscape Photography"
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| Gallery TOKI NO WASUREMONO / WATANUKI INC. LAS CASAS, 5-4-1, Hon-komagome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0021 JAPAN Tel +81-3-6902-9530 Fax +81-3-6902-9531 E-mail:info@tokinowasuremono.com http://www.tokinowasuremono.com/ Open Tuesday-Saturday 11:00-19:00 Closed on Sundays, Mondays, National Holidays Copyright（c）2012 TOKI-NO-WASUREMONO／WATANUKI INC. All rights reserved. |