A World Interwoven by Fragmentary Images: The Certain and the Uncertain
Yuki Kumagai won the Grand Prix in the 6th “1_WALL” Photography Competition for “Luxury,” works consisting of clippings caught between the ordinary and extraordinary that at a glance appear to be totally unconnected: a nude woman, a stage curtain, a child’s swimming pool, etc. What grabbed the judges’ interest was Kumagai’s passion for creation that is straightforward to the point of being inept. One judge commented on the power imbued in each of his photographs; another proposed that he was trying to photograph something inexpressible in words.
For “Unevenly dyed,” his first solo exhibition, Kumagai brings together fragmentary images: vistas encountered in Tokyo where he now lives as well as in the area where he grew up, strangers as well as acquaintances. He aims to photograph the instants when the uncertain things beyond human understanding, like being born and then proceeding toward death, capriciously take form. His title “Unevenly dyed” signifies “patchy dyework” – the state of a dyed article lacking uniformity. He chose it as an expression of how it is precisely because nothing can be understood unequivocally that no objective facts exist in the world, so it is OK to use our imaginations freely.
Visitors are eagerly invited to come and view these unique creations of a unique photographer.