. there is a 19-year-old photographer named Masumi Ishida. In her photographs of her own high school life captured with a film camera, a life-size perspective and a will to capture beauty coexist. The borderline between fantasy and non-fiction . . This may be the special place allowed for her photographs.
Ishida's will to express himself, which he has expressed through the accumulation of his life, is reflected in the publication labelTISSUE PAPERS.light years", a photo book produced by Takeshi Ando of "Light Years" with the addition of auxiliary lines, will be released on Saturday, February 3, 2012. We interviewed both of them about this photo book.
Congratulations on the publication of your photo book. This year, you are 19 years old. I know that you have often been featured in the context of "photographs taken by high school girls," but what made you decide to take photographs in the first place?
Ishida: The first time I intentionally started taking pictures was when I was in the first grade of junior high school, when I was bought a Galapagos phone. In the second year of junior high school, I got a digital SLR camera for girls, and they would get angry if I had my cell phone out at school, but they wouldn't get angry if it was a camera, so I took it with me.
. So it all started with filming at school.
Ishida: At first, I took pictures at cultural festivals, sports festivals, and commemorative occasions, but gradually I started taking pictures of everyday life as if I was recording it. Later, when I was a freshman in high school, I had the opportunity to go on an overseas study tour, and I brought not only a digital camera but also a film instant camera. That was when I started using a film camera.
. Please tell us about the school you attended.
Ishida: It was an all-girls school with integrated junior and senior high and high school, and we did not change classes for six years. . The school itself was small and the teachers were easy to see, so we got along well with each other. It was customary for the teachers to take pictures of us, so everyone was used to having their picture taken, and I even gave the data I had taken to the teachers.
You must have had some troubles with the same members for the past six years.
Ishida: There were times when that happened (laughs). . But it was not that we disliked anyone, but we accepted that there were some things like that. Everyone was aware that this environment and the members would never change.
. What role did your photographs play in all of this?
Ishida: I took digital camera pictures for everyone. If it was a group photo or one that showed everyone's face properly, I would send it to them right away that night. . Film photos were more personal, and it didn't matter if everyone's face was not in the picture, or if it was just a picture of something. I think that people were not so interested in film because digital cameras were prettier and more beautiful.
When you were taking pictures for yourself on film, what did you find beautiful about them?
Ishida: Well... , may I take this picture? Wow, I'm so close .
Photo taken by Ishida during the interview.
Ishida: Sorry, talking about beauty . When I was shooting, I simply said, "Oh! Beautiful!" . For example, I don't think of flowers or plants themselves, but the light hitting them. . For example, I don't think of flowers or plants themselves, but the light hitting them as beautiful. I really like the light reflected on the surface of the water, the light hitting the stairs, and the light itself. It changes depending on the angle from which you look at it. The light reflected on the surface of the water, depending on where you stand, you may not be able to see it at all. From my angle, it is very beautiful, but the person standing over there can't see it at all. It disappears quickly depending on the sun or clouds. Ah, I have to take a picture now! I think to myself, "I have to take a picture now! If I don't take a picture right away, it will disappear.
. You are attracted to ephemeral things, aren't you?
Ishida: Yes, that's right. I often talk to people and reconfirm things like, "Oh, that's right. Right after I graduated from high school, I didn't really know why I was taking pictures. . I only had a vague feeling that it was because I was going to lose it, or because I was graduating. . There are more than a few aspects that I have come to understand through talking with Mr. Ando.
Ando: When I look at Mr. Ishida's photographs, there is an indescribable mellowness to them, even in their sparkle. When I met him for the first time, I thought either I would get someone like, "I've opened a solo exhibition and I'm about to be a college student, so I'm invincible!" . I thought it could either be someone like that or someone who is not like that.
As a result, the most unlikely person came (laughs). . he was talking about how he didn't want to look back at his old pictures anymore, and he was tormented by the pain of his high school days being over. It wasn't loneliness or nostalgia, but something like, "It's over; I'm 19 years old, there's no more to come. I went to see him to tell him I was going to make a photo book, but I didn't know what to do (laughs).
Ishida: Maybe that was when I was feeling the worst (laughs). I wonder why. . That's the way I think. I often imagine how much longer I have left to go.
Ando: I understand the feeling of imagining the end, and in fact, I believe that the end is also painful. On the other hand , the end coincides with the beginning of something. Things that happened in one place work on something else, and then something else is born, and finally they intersect like a river. As someone who has lived a little longer than Mr. Ishida, I wanted to express this in my photo collection.
. Maybe that's something we will come to understand as we grow up.
Ando: It is like the way light changes from moment to moment, and the meaning of everything changes depending on the angle from which you look at it. . Photographs are the same way, and the meaning of a photograph seen now is completely different from that seen 10 years later. It becomes something else depending on the timing and circumstances of the viewer. It is the same with photographs taken by others, and I think that when you look at them, you superimpose something in yourself on the situations and feelings that are or are not in the picture, and give them their own meanings.
I thought that the release of the photo book was not only about the sadness of loss, but also about a sense of looking forward.
Ishida: I guess I have always had a personality that does not feel much expectation for the future. . not because I graduated from high school, either. I originally wanted to get out of the title and affiliation of being a high school student; six years was a long time, and I wanted to be among new things and people. . I didn't want to move from the present to the future, but I wanted to move out from where I am now. Through photography, I have been able to meet new people and visit various places, and although it has been hard work, I am enjoying it more than anything else. However, I can't say that 10 years from now it will be more fun than it is now, or that one year from now it will be better than it is now, or anything like that. This is difficult to convey....
. I can sense the positive power in your photos, so the gap between the two is interesting.
Ishida: The person who was the first to pick up on my work told me the other day, "There's no sense of jitteriness in your work. He said, "Photographs are meant to be kept, so there is a sense of nostalgia and guilt, but it doesn't come out too strongly in your work.
Once a photograph is released into the world, it is no longer, in a sense, unique to you. I think it is one of the unique characteristics of photography that it can be interpreted in many different ways.
Ando: As a result of being out in the world and walking alone, it can take you to places you are totally unaware of.
Ishida: I understand. That was a discovery. I am not the type of person who thinks before making something, so there were many things that I could understand and learn only when people told me.
Ando: Even if the emotions and relationships that existed when the picture was taken disappear, the photograph remains and drifts through the world. In that sense, a photograph will never die. Even if we find a family photo from 150 years ago at a flea market in a foreign country and the people in the photo are already dead, we can still imagine what they were thinking and wishing for when they took that photo. Only at that moment, they come back to life in our imagination. I have said that Mr. Ishida's work is similar to this, and that there is a basic part of the act of "photography," so to speak....
Do you think that the reason for publishing photo books on paper also has something to do with the idea of preserving and spreading the work?
Ando: It is important for a photograph to be able to exist as a single mass, which is totally different from seeing it in an exhibition. . Books have restrictions, an intended flow, and the way the colors come out is different. Personally, I like the fact that you can buy them as objects. The experience of paying for a photograph has meaning. . Although it is very troublesome to actually create them (laughs).
Ishida: I like paper books. With digital books, you can just press a button to erase them, but with books, you can't easily erase them. Burning them or selling them at a bookstore is quite a big job, and it is also heartbreaking. The weight of it is completely different. . When you buy a book, you have to save your allowance. Paper is much more emotional than paper. That is why I am happy to be able to publish my work as a photo book.
Lastly, please tell us about the contents of your photo book.
Ando: 144 pages in total . . Most of them are a compilation of photos taken by Mr. Ishida at the time of high school. Some were newly taken, but were not included in the end. . I was conscious of the fact that it would be consistent as a cohesion of time. Also, together with Ms. Natsuko Yoneyama, who did the binding for the book, we created some small devices to make people think about the transition of "light" in several patterns. It is difficult to explain without the actual photographs, so you will just have to see them for yourself. I am sure that the photographs I take from now on will change over time, so I have basically put together the most basic elements in a straightforward manner. If you have any doubts, you can always come back here.
Ishida: I wonder if it will change.... I don't like to change, don't I? When people say, "You look different from the pictures you took back then," my heart is torn to pieces... (laughs). (Laughs.) I wonder if I am better than I was then, and I feel insecure. I am afraid of change.
Ando: No, things change on their own as long as you live (laughs). The meaning of "good" and "bad" will be completely different five years from now, so let's take it easy.
Finally, I would like to quote a statement written by Takashi Ando on the occasion of the publication of "lightyears". Please read it.
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As of 2017, 40 years later, the space probe Voyager 1, launched from Florida in 1977, is currently flying about 20.9 billion kilometers from Earth at a speed of about 17.027 kilometers per second relative to the sun , and continues to transmit observation data to NASA as the most distant man-made object from the Earth so far It continues to transmit observation data to NASA as the farthest man-made object from the Earth.
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The probe was loaded with a single record entitled The Sounds of Earth. In order to communicate our culture to extraterrestrial intelligence that may exist, the record contains 115 images, including silhouettes of men and women from Earth, and many natural sounds such as waves, wind, thunder, birds and whales, as well as music from various cultures and eras, and greetings in 55 different languages.
Jimmy Carter, then President of the United States, said this in a recorded address.
"This is a gift from a small, distant world, representing our sound, science, images, music, thoughts and feelings. We hope that only this record will survive our death and reach you, so that we can rise again in your imagination."
It may seem like a rather optimistic attempt, but in a world in the midst of the Cold War, where a catastrophe could have occurred at any moment, it may in fact have been the result of an earnest wish. The recordings included Soviet choruses, Chinese greetings, and other cultures from opposing camps. . a faith in a future in which we will one day be equally resurrected by someone else's imagination.
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In 1990, Voyager 1 sent a sentimental photograph from 6 billion kilometers away, the last image of the Earth captured by its camera. . although in the vastness of space captured, the Earth was but a dot of 0.12 pixels, as the picture was named "the Pale Blue Dot. . After this shot, the camera stopped working, and we no longer have any way of knowing what he saw after that.
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Currently, Voyager 1 is gradually shutting down its observation functions in order to extend its remaining operating time as much as possible due to the declining output of its nuclear batteries. around 2030, it will cease all functions and become a silent ship traveling through endless time carrying messages of love and affection that may reach anyone at any time. It will take another 40,000 years to reach the nearest star from the solar system.
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Time, words, and scenes that will never return . Even now that they have flown past us, we all have moments that shine brightly in our memories. We always see that light from a point where we can never touch or hold it again. Not only does it sparkle sweetly, but it also sometimes pricks us with tiny thorns. The colors change like a spectrum, not easily separable as black and white. . in a place like the end of the night sky, which we can no longer reach.
Nevertheless,
Just as the light emitted hundreds of millions of years ago by a star now gone reaches us at the end of a long journey, what if the light of what you and I saw, laughed at, exchanged words with, and certainly did at that time, might someday, somewhere, illuminate our own night or that of someone we don't know?
Wherever we end up , if I or you at that time can be revived in the imagination.
Trust in its future ,.
In other words, it is the fundamental wish of photography.
Interview & Text_.Taiyo Nagashima
light years
List price: ¥4,000+TAX
Published by TISSUE Inc.
A5 size, 144 pages
Binding: Natsuko Yoneyama
Editing: Takeshi Ando
tissuepapers.stores.com/items/59eeaa4b428f2d4e7800069a
photo exhibition
Date: ~February 4 (Sun.)
Venue: gallery QUIET NOISE
Address: 1F, 2-45-2 Daizawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Reception: Saturday, January 27, 17:00~.
Closing Talk & Book Signing: Saturday, February 3, 16:00~.
. If you pre-order the book at SHIBUYA PUBLISHING & BOOKSELLERS, QUIET NOISE, or TISSUE PAPERS online store during January, you will receive a set of two postcards as a special offer.
masumi-ishida.com
www.quietnoise.jp
tissuepapers.stores.com
