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Interface - Or, What Japan’s Great Post-War Photographers Kept Looking For: An Inquiry into the Artistic Practice of Shomei Tomatsu
Fujifilm Square
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Artists
Shomei Tomatsu
At the begin of the 1960s, Shomei Tomatsu stunned Japan’s photographic scene with his black-and-white series’ such as “House,” “Occupation” and “Nagasaki.” After covering the U.S. military bases in Okinawa at the end of the 1960s — he published photographs of these bases as part of a collection titled “The Pencil of the Sun” in 1975 — Tomatsu then turned to color photography and, while making the coverage of Nagasaki his lifework, brought forth a diverse portfolio that continues to influence the world of photography in various ways today.
When engaging with photographs by Shomei Tomatsu, one should remember that his heart surgery in 1986 marked a turning point also in his photographic practice. For, as Tomatsu stated after the surgery, this experience shifted his interest to questions surrounding the human will and power to survive. With this experience as a connecting node, the exhibition is divided into two parts. The first part will show Tomatsu’s series “Plastics,” which he shot a few years after his surgery, in 1988 and 1989. The second part will feature “Interface,” a series of photographs he took between 1968 and 1996.
“Plastics” was shot at Kujukuri Beach in Chiba, where Tomatsu lived after his surgery. It depicts plastic objects washed ashore and in doing so explores the possibilities of aesteticizing the inorganic, the ‘dead’ within nature. “Interface” begins with the 1966 photograph “Intertidal Zone” and consists of works focusing on — as the title of the initial photograph suggests — the area of land that is above water at low tide and underwater at high tide. Tomatsu offers us a vivid overview of the manifold facets of this zone, which is habitat to various forms of life and, delimited by continuously changing boarders, constitutes an interface, so to say, between land and sea that invites us to question rigid distinctions between different spheres of life.
In this exhibition you will also find a number of other ‘interfaces:’ between the past and present, nature and civilization, which Tomatsu stages in a multilayered approach so as to challenge the self-evidence of what we see as borderlines between them and we hope that juxtaposing “Plastics” and “Interface” within one exhibition, then, will in turn result in yet another ‘interface’ that leads us toward new insights into the aesthetic practice of Shomei Tomatsu.
Venue: Photo History Museum, Fujifilm Square
Schedule:
Part 1 - July 1 (Sat) - August 14 (Mon)
Part 2 - August 15 (Tue) - September 30 (Sat)
[Related Events]
Gallery Talk
Yasuko Tomatsu (CEO of Shomei Tomatsu Office Interface) discusses Shomei Tomatsu and his work.
Event Date: July 29 (Sat) 14:00-, 16:00-, September 2 (Sat) 14:00-, 16:00- (duration: approx. 30 mins. each)
Admission: Free (no booking required)
*Event in Japanese
When engaging with photographs by Shomei Tomatsu, one should remember that his heart surgery in 1986 marked a turning point also in his photographic practice. For, as Tomatsu stated after the surgery, this experience shifted his interest to questions surrounding the human will and power to survive. With this experience as a connecting node, the exhibition is divided into two parts. The first part will show Tomatsu’s series “Plastics,” which he shot a few years after his surgery, in 1988 and 1989. The second part will feature “Interface,” a series of photographs he took between 1968 and 1996.
“Plastics” was shot at Kujukuri Beach in Chiba, where Tomatsu lived after his surgery. It depicts plastic objects washed ashore and in doing so explores the possibilities of aesteticizing the inorganic, the ‘dead’ within nature. “Interface” begins with the 1966 photograph “Intertidal Zone” and consists of works focusing on — as the title of the initial photograph suggests — the area of land that is above water at low tide and underwater at high tide. Tomatsu offers us a vivid overview of the manifold facets of this zone, which is habitat to various forms of life and, delimited by continuously changing boarders, constitutes an interface, so to say, between land and sea that invites us to question rigid distinctions between different spheres of life.
In this exhibition you will also find a number of other ‘interfaces:’ between the past and present, nature and civilization, which Tomatsu stages in a multilayered approach so as to challenge the self-evidence of what we see as borderlines between them and we hope that juxtaposing “Plastics” and “Interface” within one exhibition, then, will in turn result in yet another ‘interface’ that leads us toward new insights into the aesthetic practice of Shomei Tomatsu.
Venue: Photo History Museum, Fujifilm Square
Schedule:
Part 1 - July 1 (Sat) - August 14 (Mon)
Part 2 - August 15 (Tue) - September 30 (Sat)
[Related Events]
Gallery Talk
Yasuko Tomatsu (CEO of Shomei Tomatsu Office Interface) discusses Shomei Tomatsu and his work.
Event Date: July 29 (Sat) 14:00-, 16:00-, September 2 (Sat) 14:00-, 16:00- (duration: approx. 30 mins. each)
Admission: Free (no booking required)
*Event in Japanese
Schedule | Jul 1 (Sat) 2017-Sep 30 (Sat) 2017 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||||
| Website | http://fujifilmsquare.jp/en/detail/17070104.html | ||||||
| Venue | Fujifilm Square http://fujifilmsquare.jp/en/ | ||||||
| Location | 1F West, Tokyo Midtown, 9-7-3 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052 | ||||||
| Access | Direct walk from exit 8 at Roppongi Station on the Toei Oedo or Hibiya line, 5 minute walk from exit 3 at Nogizaka Station on the Chiyoda line. | ||||||
| Phone | 03-6271-3350 | ||||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it  |
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