Yusuke Endo
“ Formerly Known As Photography ”
2019Excellence Award
ARTIST STATEMENT
Formerly Known As Photography
Photography, especially street photography, faces two intractable problems from surveillance cameras, smartphones, social media, and the social control that meshes so well with these technological innovations. The first is the right to one's own likeness. There is increasing concern about individuals' private domains being spread open to the public in a flash. And the willful operation of cameras in streets is now viewed as a wrong that should be eradicated. The second is question marks about the decisive moment in photography. In our present time, the entirety of one's daily life can be recorded in high resolution. So, is there value anymore in a single arbitrary instant either circumscribed or selected by the photographer and the camera (with a functional limit of 1/60 of a second, assuming 60 fps 4K video)?
Despite these problems, I believe there are things only photography can do. This collection is my wishful verification of that.
Entries form: Book (279 x 355 mm) with 38 inkjet prints, Video (01:47)
Selecting judge: Takashi Yasumura
I was attracted by the honest and frank stance of the photographer's exploration: How do street photographs resonate with video showing the moments before and after the photographs were taken when the two are juxtaposed next to each other? Care has been taken to coordinate the surface appearance of the still images with the video by recreating the still images with transparencies and transmitted light. The photographer seems to be wagering the potential of encountering something yet unknown on the physicality expressed in the video. What sort of experience does the viewer get by the device of forcibly carving out respective outlines for the still images and the video? This work, which was initially conceived around the difficulties of street photography, also unintentionally contains, in my opinion, the compelling question: Is the relationship between still images and video seamless?
PROFILE
Yusuke Endo
| 1985 | Born in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture |
| 2007 | Graduated from the Department of Intermedia Art, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts |
Solo exhibitions
| 2018 | “So As To Not Be Left Behind In The Eyes” (at the Nikon Salon, Ginza and Osaka) |
Group exhibitions
| 2011 | “Floating View: Art from the Suburbs” (at the Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo) |
| 2016 | “15th 1_WALL Photography” exhibition (at the Guardian Garden, Tokyo) |
| 2017 | “The void between you and the ocean, and everything that passes by” (at the Shiogama Sugimura Jun Museum of Art, Miyagi) |
2019Excellence Award