Deconstruction of the physical and narrative features of ‘illuminate by Rinko Kawauchi :

Illumaiance is one of the book from a three part series called the ‘Utatane’ series, in which Rinko describes it as
‘Utatane re-creates a fragmentary and fleeting world in which every detail relates to notions of birth, life, death and the passage of time’. It focuses on the tiny elements of life that we would miss out on in out normal everyday life. The book has a female touch which is evident though the pastel and soft colours which is a running theme throughout the book. The book was published in 2011 and is £40. The book is very heavy to hold as it contains hundreds of pages of photos. Each of the pages are think in its quality which has helped to give the book and very professional feel to it.

Format, size and orientation:

The book is 11 x 8 1/2 inches, 163 pages, 144 four-color images. The book has been made as a cloth bounding a using Japansee binding to hold it together, due to this it gives the book a rough texture to the hands when it is held.

Rhythm and sequencing

The book focus of the book is a sublime and spiritual aesthetic that runs throughout the whole of the book. The book links together as a whole as each image links to the next one. Each image has a unique style which contains a spiritual element which Rinko is able to create easily. In the book there is the constant pattern flowing throughout the book of circles and the sense of moving, nearly on every page there is some form of circle weather it be tiny or small or the center focus of the image or just out of the frame. I think is meant to be a metaphor for the circle of life as Rinko said that the book is meant to ‘inescapable life and death and everything in between’. However some of the images that are presented next to each other are contrasting, its the contrast within them that works well together, such as the light and shadow and the line compared the circular shape.

Structure and architecture:

Her work is very much inspired by the religion of Shinto that all things on earth have a spirit, hence no subject is too small or mundane, which is evident in this book. I feel as if her book is a reflection of her view of the world, she is able to see more than the physical object such as a tree she sees the re marke able beauty in it. What inspired me most about her work, is how beautiful her images of everyday landscapes she has photographed in way that they appear beautiful. She is able to photograph the beauty in everyday life. Her images range from landscapes to portraits to abstract scenes, in her work she applies a soft touch to all of the images, so they look very relaxing and visually pleasing on the eye. Her work is very similar to the style of Laua El Tanaway, both of their work has a dream like feel to it, are very very bright and the colours in the images are very desaturated.

She brings a very contemporary and fresh feel to her work, she is breaking the conventional rules with her photography and shows her perspective of the world. The framing of her images are not always typical photography angles and would be sometimes consider incorrect but the way that she frames it and uses symmetry and patterns adds much more depth too her images, looking at her work as a viewer I am able to see Rinkos mindset and look on the world and I can tell that she views each work personality and emotion into each image and each image has a meaning and nothing is placed by accident, Which I hope that I have transferred into my work and a viewer of my work would be able to pick out these qualities in my book.

All of the images are 6x6squares that have been positioned on the top section of the page, this is consistence throughout the book

Narrative:

There is no narrative to the book in regards to telling a story, but there is this sense of flowing and everything come full circle. As the images are of everyday things and situations I think that these images must have been taken over a long period of time and then have been carefully selected to get this sense of connection between them.

Title:

The book is titled ‘Illuminance’,which is visually reflected in the images as all of the images are very light and look like they have been over exposed but Rinko had done it in a way which has given a nice aesthetic to the images which has become a trade mark style of hers.

Colour and B&W (or a mix):

All of the images are in colour but are very light and the tint of the colours to give them a certain look to them, almost as if they had been taken on a film camera but they had not.