Photographing Rooms for the Purpose of Photographing Light
Mizuki Kin was feeling trapped in the same daily routine within her tiny room when she noticed how her bed quilt sparkled with white in the rays of the sun shining through her window. It was a scene that fascinated her greatly, and she says it reminded her of something she had been told during a trip to France: that churches were designed to make worshipers sense the presence of god by the light shining in through their high windows. This modest event inspired her to find happiness, through the presence of light, within the gloomy passage of the days.
“Lights,” winner of the 2010 Grand Prize in photography, treats the rooms where people live as “boxes for looking at light.” It won acclaim from the judges for its “interesting simplicity,” the way Kin seems to take random shots inside rooms without giving the matter an undue amount of thought. Her photos eliminate any concern for the room or its occupant, and together with their compositions drawing upon paintings and photographs from the past, they are shot mechanically. The furnishings and everyday items in the room seem to exist only as catalysts for showing light.
For her solo exhibition, Kin took her earlier work a step further, treating the receptor of light as her theme and giving it the title “ether.” In the wake of the disasters of March 11, Kin has been shaken, her thoughts about everyday routine, which she took for granted before, now overturned. In her exhibition, visitors were given a glimpse of how Kin is dealing with her newfound uncertainty.