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1973

by Keiichi Tahara

Photographs: Keiichi Tahara

Publisher: Super Labo

40 pages

Year: 2016

ISBN: 978-4-908512-01-8

Price: 44 €

Comments: Softcover, 28 x 21,6cm,

"Everything I perceived, saw and felt was utterly new. There was a quivering field of light, completely different from what I had become accustomed to in Japan. It was the July of 1971 when I finally settled down after the initial excitement of having arrived in Paris. I had regained the calmness to observe. The sky was a shade of teal, something connected to the pitch black of outer space. Arrows of light pierced the dry air, approaching stone buildings. Vicious waves of light. An entire universe I had never seen, much less felt, read about or imagined before. Particles of light jumped into my eyes. I was surprised to learn first hand that light is, in fact, made of particles. It felt as if I could grasp it in my hands. This was when my journey into the world of light started. A myriad of visual childhood memories suddenly made sense under the concept of light. I had discovered my place in the world. The narrative of 1973 started in the loft of a seven story building, no elevator, in the Parisian student district of Quartier Latin.: - Keiichi Tahara

The best medium to capture light is film. The best medium to express it is photo paper. Days and nights I spent roaming the streets of Paris and London with my camera. Later, when I held an exhibition in Tokyo, this is what the designer Shiro Kuramata wrote on his introduction: Keiichi Tahara releases the shutter twice. Once when he takes the photo, once when he develops the film.

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