okinawan portraits 2012-2016
石川竜一写真集
石川竜一写真集
5,000円＋税｜245×255mm｜288ページ｜並製本
アートディレクション：町口 景
アートディレクション：町口 景
okinawan portraits 2012-2016
Works of Ryuichi Ishikawa
Works of Ryuichi Ishikawa
5,000JPY｜245×255mm｜288pages｜Soft cover
Art Direction : Hikari Machiguchi
Art Direction : Hikari Machiguchi
ISBN：978-4-86541-051-8
Published in September 2016.
＊お支払い方法は、代金引換、銀行振込、郵便振替、クレジットカード支払い、PayPal よりお選び頂けます。 Published in September 2016.
About Book
石川竜一、渾身の沖縄ポートレート。第二弾。
木村伊兵衛写真賞を受賞し、たちまち完売となった『okinawan portraits 2010-2012』。シリーズの続編となる『2012-2016』では、人物、風景、建物など、身のまわりのものすべてをポートレート的な視点で撮影しています。
被写体により多くを委ね、社会のなかの個人が写しとられたポートレートは、 全268点。フォーマットも変化し、さらに状況や時間を取り込みながら、ポートレートの新たな可能性を探っています。日常に根差したリアリティが「沖縄」という枠を超えて、人の生命力と影、社会と人々の在り方、開発と変容、背景にある大きな問題について普遍的に問いかける本作。
ひとつとして要約することのできない存在がポリフォニーとなって立ち上がります。
あなたは誰ですか。
私はこの景色です。
あなたは誰ですか。
私はこの音です。
あなたは誰ですか。
私はこの香りです。
あなたは誰ですか。
私はこの痛みです。
あなたは誰ですか。
社会です。
あなたは誰ですか。
歴史です。
あなたは誰ですか。
私はあなたです。
私は誰ですか。
あなたは私です。そして、私が決して知ることのできない何者かです。
あなたはここまで来て、ここから行くのです。
宇宙(ひと)の前に突っ立つ。目の前の宇宙は二本の足によって世界と繋がっている。目の前にも背後にも、見渡す限り世界が広がっている。その世界もまた、幾重にも重なり宇宙へと繋がっている。世界が生まれたとき、宇宙では何が起こったのか。赤ん坊が立つとき、世界で何が起こっているのか。震える膝に力を込めて、朦朧とする意識を両手で整えて。手首で脈打つ両手では数え切れないほどの時間。２つの目だけでは見渡すことのできないほど深い意識。1.4キロの脳みそに詰め込まれた無限の存在と、そのなかで生まれる偶然と矛盾。動き続ける世界ですれ違う宇宙。
誰もが孤独な宇宙の中で、その命を削ることによって存在している。その星屑のように舞い上がる削りカスのなかに立ったとき、美しさを問うことはあまりに儚く、自由を問うことはあまりに虚しく、正しさを問うことはあまりに脆い。ただただただ。ひたすらに。生きる術を探す。私は私である。
（石川竜一 後記より抜粋）
Who are you?
I am this landscape.
Who are you?
I am this sound.
Who are you?
I am this fragrance.
Who are you?
I am this pain.
Who are you?
Society.
Who are you?
History.
Who are you?
I am you.
Who am I?
You are me. And someone I can never know.
You come to this place and go from this place.
I stand tall before the universe (human being). The universe before my eyes is connected to the world by two feet. The world stretches out as far as the eye can see in front of me and behind me. And the world in multiple layers is also connected to the universe. When the world was born, what happened in the universe? When a baby stands up, what happens in the world? All of its strength is put into trembling knees; hazy consciousness is steadied with both hands. In those hands with pulsing wrists is countless time. Deep consciousness impossible to see in its entirety with only two eyes. An infinite being compressed into 1.4 kilograms of brain matter and the coincidences and contradictions born from it. A universe that doesn't cross paths with a constantly moving world.
For everyone, existence is a solitary universe of life that is gradually erased. Stand among these eraser shavings that whirl up like stardust and it is ephemeral to ask what beauty is, futile to ask what freedom is, meaningless to ask what rightness is. Just, solely, only. Simply. I search for the art of living life. I am myself.
(Blow from Ryuichi Ishikawa)
Ryuichi Ishikawa is an Okinawan's Okinawan- Much like his home islands, his work has a wild streak that seems out of synch with the rest of mainland Japan. This is in fact a very good thing- for his ongoing documentation of his homeland could not be done as vividly, surely, or with as much raw love, had the project been taken on by an outsider from Tokyo.
This follow-up to his Kimura Ihee award-winning book Okinawan Portraits 2010-2012 picks up directly where the last one left off. This new entry features some 268 images which lead viewers on a winding journey through a world unique to these islands. It's inhabitants shine in Ishikawa's photographs- his steady gaze is as much about celebration as it is truth. Okinawa, and by extension Okinawans, aren't sentimentalized within these pages- nor are they sanitized. No matter what struggles these people have faced- whether self-inflicted or from birthright, their dignity is kept intact. The people and places shown in Ishikawa's pictures are the product of an environment and society that's inherited a historical legacy. The effects of seventy-plus years of Americanization can be seen everywhere- from designs painted on sunbaked walls to glowing fast food franchise signage, to the fashions and even faces of the citizens themselves. These pictures deftly portray a society that, despite having been stretched and battered by the East and West, continues to glower with a fiercely independent spirit.
Certainly Okinawan Portraits reflects photographic methods which are deeply woven into the tapestry that makes up the craft's history- within the pages of this book one can find visual threads that reach back to photography's past age (Think August Sander to Alec Soth) to new chapters that reach forward into the contemporary world of online street-fashion blogs and the infinite visual sea that is Instagram. Ishikawa's portraits however aren't mere decoration or a collection of "characters" to feed an online viewership- the people within these pages are alive and it's because of their flaws and beauty for which the photographer resolutely devotes himself to them. They are his, and he is theirs. The camera seals this fact with a snap of the shutter.
MOMA curator, critic, and photographer John Szarkowski once remarked that importance in a photographic work is only measured by what subsequent artists make of it- the reverberations of Ishikawa's Okinawan masterpiece will no doubt continue to have lasting effects in the ongoing visual dialogue of documentary portraiture.
I am this landscape.
Who are you?
I am this sound.
Who are you?
I am this fragrance.
Who are you?
I am this pain.
Who are you?
Society.
Who are you?
History.
Who are you?
I am you.
Who am I?
You are me. And someone I can never know.
You come to this place and go from this place.
I stand tall before the universe (human being). The universe before my eyes is connected to the world by two feet. The world stretches out as far as the eye can see in front of me and behind me. And the world in multiple layers is also connected to the universe. When the world was born, what happened in the universe? When a baby stands up, what happens in the world? All of its strength is put into trembling knees; hazy consciousness is steadied with both hands. In those hands with pulsing wrists is countless time. Deep consciousness impossible to see in its entirety with only two eyes. An infinite being compressed into 1.4 kilograms of brain matter and the coincidences and contradictions born from it. A universe that doesn't cross paths with a constantly moving world.
For everyone, existence is a solitary universe of life that is gradually erased. Stand among these eraser shavings that whirl up like stardust and it is ephemeral to ask what beauty is, futile to ask what freedom is, meaningless to ask what rightness is. Just, solely, only. Simply. I search for the art of living life. I am myself.
(Blow from Ryuichi Ishikawa)
Ryuichi Ishikawa is an Okinawan's Okinawan- Much like his home islands, his work has a wild streak that seems out of synch with the rest of mainland Japan. This is in fact a very good thing- for his ongoing documentation of his homeland could not be done as vividly, surely, or with as much raw love, had the project been taken on by an outsider from Tokyo.
This follow-up to his Kimura Ihee award-winning book Okinawan Portraits 2010-2012 picks up directly where the last one left off. This new entry features some 268 images which lead viewers on a winding journey through a world unique to these islands. It's inhabitants shine in Ishikawa's photographs- his steady gaze is as much about celebration as it is truth. Okinawa, and by extension Okinawans, aren't sentimentalized within these pages- nor are they sanitized. No matter what struggles these people have faced- whether self-inflicted or from birthright, their dignity is kept intact. The people and places shown in Ishikawa's pictures are the product of an environment and society that's inherited a historical legacy. The effects of seventy-plus years of Americanization can be seen everywhere- from designs painted on sunbaked walls to glowing fast food franchise signage, to the fashions and even faces of the citizens themselves. These pictures deftly portray a society that, despite having been stretched and battered by the East and West, continues to glower with a fiercely independent spirit.
Certainly Okinawan Portraits reflects photographic methods which are deeply woven into the tapestry that makes up the craft's history- within the pages of this book one can find visual threads that reach back to photography's past age (Think August Sander to Alec Soth) to new chapters that reach forward into the contemporary world of online street-fashion blogs and the infinite visual sea that is Instagram. Ishikawa's portraits however aren't mere decoration or a collection of "characters" to feed an online viewership- the people within these pages are alive and it's because of their flaws and beauty for which the photographer resolutely devotes himself to them. They are his, and he is theirs. The camera seals this fact with a snap of the shutter.
MOMA curator, critic, and photographer John Szarkowski once remarked that importance in a photographic work is only measured by what subsequent artists make of it- the reverberations of Ishikawa's Okinawan masterpiece will no doubt continue to have lasting effects in the ongoing visual dialogue of documentary portraiture.
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Artist Information
石川竜一｜Ryuichi Ishikawa1984年 沖縄県生まれ
2006年 沖縄国際大学科社会文化学科卒、大学在学中に写真と出会う
2008年 前衛舞踊家 しば正龍に師事
2010年 写真家 勇崎哲史に師事
写真展「脳みそポートレイト」、沖縄県立博物館・美術館1F県民ギャラリー1,2
写真集『SHIBA 踊る惑星』自費出版
写真展「瞑」、ギャラリーoMac（ 写真、コンテンポラリーダンス）
2011年 写真展「FRAGMENTS2」に参加、沖縄県立博物館・美術館1F県民ギャラリー
東松照明デジタル写真ワークショップに3期生として参加
同ワークショップ終了写真展に参加、沖縄タイムスビル
「Open Okinawa 沖縄幕開け！展」、space tropical（写真、コンテンポラリーダンス）
2012年 「沖縄本土復帰40周年写真展 OKINAWA 0 POINT」に参加
『okinawan portraits』で第35回キヤノン写真新世紀佳作受賞
2013年 写真展「FRAGMENTS3」参加、沖縄県立博物館・美術館1F県民ギャラリー（写真、コンテンポラリーダンス）
写真集『しば正龍 女形の魅力』自費出版
しば正龍独演会にコンテンポラリーダンスでソロ出演
2014年 森山大道ポートフォリオレビュー展出品、 沖縄県立博物館・美術館1F県民ギャラリー
写真展「RYUICHI ISHIKAWA」、gallery ラファイエット
自主制作写真集『RYUICHI ISHIKAWA』
写真展「show case #3」に出品、eN arts
写真集『okinawan portraits 2010-2012』、『絶景のポリフォニー』を赤々舎より刊行
写真展「zkop」、アツコバルー
写真展「 okinawan portraits 2010-2012」、PLACE M
写真展「絶景のポリフォニー」、銀座ニコンサロン
