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.