Recollections: From New York to Tokyo
Masayo Nishimura
Recollections: From New York to Tokyo
Photography
February 1 - 26, 2011
Reception: Thursday, 10 February, 6 - 8pm
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 12 - 6pm,
Thursday 12-8pm
Ceres Gallery
547 West 27th St Suite 201
New York, NY 10001
212 947 6100
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Recollections: From New York to Tokyo
Masayo Nishimura
Nishimura began studying photography in 1993. From the beginning she was attracted to the light and shadows created by subway architecture. Down in the station, Nishimura often felt as if she were inside of a huge fish tank, with blurry passengers and cars floating by in the depths. Illuminated by artificial light, everything looked quiet, fictitious and detached from ordinary reality. The subway lighting often created dreamlike shadows and other times, ghostly effects. The surreal images created by this everyday environment intrigued her.
“Tokyo Subway series”
In the summer of 2007, after Nishimura finished a series of color photographs of subway architecture using a medium format camera, she returned to her 35 mm SRL film camera and began shooting at nearby subway stations again. Then two years later Nishimura had the opportunity of going back to her native land and shooting Tokyo subway stations. Her shooting approach in both cities was almost the same, casual and spontaneous, as most of her shots were taken from behind passengers, using a 28mm wide-angle lens with fixed aperture and with no flash or tripod.
Unlike pre-war designed, rat-infested New York subway stations, subway architecture in Tokyo is relatively new, clean and well maintained and filled with generally well-mannered passengers. Although the atmosphere of these two cities is so different, Nishimura found an undeniable similarity in the images she took when she developed the exposed negatives. Just like her images taken in NYC subways, illuminated by artificial lighting, Tokyo subway passengers in the photos look meditative, quiet and somehow detached from reality in these supposedly noisy public places. That surreal impression that Nishimura discovered in NYC subways also definitely existed even in the modernized Tokyo subways.
In addition Nishimura found that Tokyo passengers such as groups of men in dark business suits and especially schoolgirls wearing monotone school uniforms appear quite fascinating. Those uniformed creatures, both the men and the girls that she shot from every angle, blend so well into the Tokyo subway architecture, they seem a natural fixture of the subterranean environment.
“Scenes from Japan”
During her stay in Japan, Nishimura went to Tokyo and Senri New Town (a suburban city in Osaka prefecture where she grew up), and shot not only subway stations, but also various other locales. The scenes shown here are some of the photos Nishimura took at Roppongi Hills - a New Urban Centre located in Roppongi, Tokyo, as well as at Senri Selcy - a suburban shopping mall located in Senri New Town, Osaka. Although Nishimura took all those pictures quite spontaneously, they came out as rather interesting "frozen" moments of time showing crowds along with urban high-tech architecture. Each person in the photographs seems to convey his or her own personal life story even though they appear frozen in their action.
Nishimura is, of course, hoping to continue her photographic art-making after this project. However, since Kodak recently discontinued their production of color printing paper for manual printing, she has been having a difficult time keeping on with her printmaking in the color dark room. This exhibition may be her last photography show in which all the prints are hand-printed from film negatives. Although she doesn’t know which direction her photography will take in the future, she just hopes to be able to discover magical moments in the everyday environment, in such places as subway stations which have the unique ability to transform themselves into something totally unexpected and fascinating.
Recollections: From New York to Tokyo
Photography
February 1 - 26, 2011
Reception: Thursday, 10 February, 6 - 8pm
Gallery hours: Tuesday to Saturday 12 - 6pm,
Thursday 12-8pm
Ceres Gallery
547 West 27th St Suite 201
New York, NY 10001
212 947 6100
--------------------------------------------------
Recollections: From New York to Tokyo
Masayo Nishimura
Nishimura began studying photography in 1993. From the beginning she was attracted to the light and shadows created by subway architecture. Down in the station, Nishimura often felt as if she were inside of a huge fish tank, with blurry passengers and cars floating by in the depths. Illuminated by artificial light, everything looked quiet, fictitious and detached from ordinary reality. The subway lighting often created dreamlike shadows and other times, ghostly effects. The surreal images created by this everyday environment intrigued her.
“Tokyo Subway series”
In the summer of 2007, after Nishimura finished a series of color photographs of subway architecture using a medium format camera, she returned to her 35 mm SRL film camera and began shooting at nearby subway stations again. Then two years later Nishimura had the opportunity of going back to her native land and shooting Tokyo subway stations. Her shooting approach in both cities was almost the same, casual and spontaneous, as most of her shots were taken from behind passengers, using a 28mm wide-angle lens with fixed aperture and with no flash or tripod.
Unlike pre-war designed, rat-infested New York subway stations, subway architecture in Tokyo is relatively new, clean and well maintained and filled with generally well-mannered passengers. Although the atmosphere of these two cities is so different, Nishimura found an undeniable similarity in the images she took when she developed the exposed negatives. Just like her images taken in NYC subways, illuminated by artificial lighting, Tokyo subway passengers in the photos look meditative, quiet and somehow detached from reality in these supposedly noisy public places. That surreal impression that Nishimura discovered in NYC subways also definitely existed even in the modernized Tokyo subways.
In addition Nishimura found that Tokyo passengers such as groups of men in dark business suits and especially schoolgirls wearing monotone school uniforms appear quite fascinating. Those uniformed creatures, both the men and the girls that she shot from every angle, blend so well into the Tokyo subway architecture, they seem a natural fixture of the subterranean environment.
“Scenes from Japan”
During her stay in Japan, Nishimura went to Tokyo and Senri New Town (a suburban city in Osaka prefecture where she grew up), and shot not only subway stations, but also various other locales. The scenes shown here are some of the photos Nishimura took at Roppongi Hills - a New Urban Centre located in Roppongi, Tokyo, as well as at Senri Selcy - a suburban shopping mall located in Senri New Town, Osaka. Although Nishimura took all those pictures quite spontaneously, they came out as rather interesting "frozen" moments of time showing crowds along with urban high-tech architecture. Each person in the photographs seems to convey his or her own personal life story even though they appear frozen in their action.
Nishimura is, of course, hoping to continue her photographic art-making after this project. However, since Kodak recently discontinued their production of color printing paper for manual printing, she has been having a difficult time keeping on with her printmaking in the color dark room. This exhibition may be her last photography show in which all the prints are hand-printed from film negatives. Although she doesn’t know which direction her photography will take in the future, she just hopes to be able to discover magical moments in the everyday environment, in such places as subway stations which have the unique ability to transform themselves into something totally unexpected and fascinating.
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