Yesterday, I used up all my remaining “Kodak Ektacolor Supra Endura Color Negative RC Glossy Paper, 16 x 20” at last. Now I'm officially out of paper.
Since Kodak announced it would stop manufacturing this paper at the end of 2009, the product became extremely hard to get since it disappeared from the stores very quickly. If I were lucky, I might be able to find expired papers at E-bay or other countries' auction sites... I just hope...
Recollections vol.2; Tokyo, June 2011 - statement
Masayo Nishimura
Recollections vol.2; Tokyo, June 2011
Photography
This exhibition features Nishimura’s color photographs of various passersby almost all of which were captured in one sunny afternoon on the streets of Tokyo, Japan in June 2011.
For this project, Nishimura shot around Shinjuku Station--the busiest business and shopping area in Tokyo. However in her images, the pedestrians on the sidewalks and crosswalks appear strangely frozen in the middle of their action while they are moving their feet one step forward toward their destinations. Some are captured while holding umbrellas, some are frozen while conversing with others or talking on cell phones, and some are caught while running hurriedly with long strides - all of these actions are momentary paused. Along with beaming sunlight and dark shadows cast on the ground, the scenes look surreal, fictitious and curiously soundless, even though the actual location is filled with traffic sounds and crowd noise.
In her sequential series of “Scramble Crossing”, Nishimura experiments with the consecutive shooting of people on a scramble crossing. During the brief period of time when the traffic signal changes from green to red, she captures various types of pedestrians as well as vehicles crossing in opposite directions. These paused frames and sequential images reveal interesting “raw” expressions of people in their facial and body language which they are not normally conscious of. On the scramble, each person seems to tell his or her own personal story even though they appear frozen in time.
By using a wide-angle lens with fixed aperture and a relatively high shutter speed with no flash or tripod or close up shot, Nishimura was able to capture all of the images casually and spontaneously as a distant observer without interacting with her subjects. Her approach becomes a sampling of everyday life out on the streets. An added bonus is that these everyday scenes often transform themselves into a unique expression and unexpectedly tell stories by themselves, as also exemplified by her previous NYC subway photographs.
* All the shots are taken with a 35 mm film camera with Fuji color film and hand-printed by the artist on her final stock of Kodak paper.
Note about photography paper used for this exhibition
I have been using only a film camera and do all the printing from negatives by myself in a color darkroom. “Kodak Ektacolor Supra Endura Color Negative RC Glossy Paper, 16 x 20” - a photographic enlarging paper for manual printing made by Kodak - has been used for all of my works since beginning of my career. However, since Kodak announced it would stop manufacturing this paper at the end of 2009, the product became extremely hard to get since it disappeared from the stores very quickly.
By early 2010, I acquired 6 boxes (50 sheets per box) at several stores’ warehouses and this was the last remaining stock that I could find. By the spring of 2011, when I finished my 2011 February show at Ceres gallery, there were only three boxes left unused. Then by the summer of that year, I noticed that the remaining paper started showing some discoloration. The supposedly pure white paper was turning slightly yellowish white, which indicated that the expiration date had almost passed.
Around that time, the director of Ceres inquired about the possibility of my doing another show the following spring. I agreed to do so, not because I had enough new images to show but because I had the paper issue in my mind. I simply wanted to utilize my last remaining Kodak paper before it become completely unusable. So, I took the show’s slot and decided to utilize all the remaining Kodak paper for printing the images that I shot during my stay in Japan, June 2011. Therefore if a viewer at the exhibit notices that the paper used for this show shows subtle differences in shading, it is because of the above reason.
Besides the paper issue, it was difficult to find a decent color dark room since the industry is shrinking rapidly due to a significant decrease in clients. Since the lab where I frequently used past 6 years stopped maintaining equipment properly, I had to move to the much smaller but well maintained lab where young staffs & customers were always chatting so lively, playing music, just right next to the darkroom I was in…though the equipments were okay, I had hard times concentrating.
Anyway I still preferred to print my images for the show on my remaining Kodak paper in darkroom, rather than using another company’s product or changing to digital printing. In January 2012, while I was preparing for this show, Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy. I would just like to say thank you to the Kodak Company for having been the producer of my beloved paper and film with which I was able to achieve many creative goals, and also for their 131 years of incomparable dedication to the art of film photography.
Recollections vol.2; Tokyo, June 2011
Artist:
Masayo Nishimura
Show Title:
Recollections vol.2;Tokyo, June 2011
Photography
Show Date:
March 27 - April 21, 2012
Opening reception:
Thursday, March 29, 6pm - 8pm
Short Description:
This exhibition features Nishimura’s color photographs of various passers-by captured on busy Tokyo streets. With her spontaneous style that often freezes moments in time, the artist is able to transform an everyday scene into a unique expression, allowing the viewers to interpret as they see fit.
All the shots are taken with a 35 mm film camera and hand-printed by the artist on her final stock of Kodak paper.
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