Moodboard of her work

Visceral – relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect

Surrealism – Surrealism aims to revolutionise human experience. It is a style in art and literature in which ideas, images, and objects are combined in a strange way, like in a dream.

Who is she?

Born in Shinga, Japan, Kawauchi is a popular and admired photographer. She is most known for her ability to capture the moments in everyday life using a soft palette. She has studied photography and graphic design at the Seian University of Art and Design. After graduating in 1933, she spent a period of working as a freelance photographer in advertising and released three photobooks. These were released in 2001 and were called UTATANE, HANABI, and HANOKO. Her hard work resulted in gaining fame practically overnight, and since then she has created several photobooks with work that has been shown across the world.

https://lapispress.com/artists/40-rinko-kawauchi/biography/

Why have I chosen to study her?

I wanted to capture a visceral sense and emotion through my image, rather then showing nostalgia through objects or basic images. I want to draw an emotion through the photos in my book, not just a pretty photo to look at. The emotions I want to achieve is nostalgic love and happiness, transporting the viewer to a personal time in their life or childhood that is different for each person. However, I am going to focus on capturing photos that feel close to my childhood, and do this inspired by Kawauchi’s style.

Illuminance

Ten years after releasing her photobooks (Utatane, Hanabi, and Hanako) she published Illuminance which is the most recent volume of Kuwauchi’s work. This book is the first to be published outside of Japan, widening her audience and giving her work more of an opportunity to be appreciated.

This book is carefully constructed from design to the order of the photos. She has reversed the signatures in the binding of the book to create a folded page. At first it seems confusing, however it also lead me to think there was something hidden in the pages, also linking each photo to each other as if they are ‘attached’. She has also used swiss binding, which I find opens the book up more, possibly making the viewer feel like they are entering her world through the book.

The book has a theme of circles throughout, beginning with what looks like a solar eclipse, and ending with a photo from the same shoot later on. The sun is hidden in the first one, but showing in the last, and I feel like Kuwauchi could have created a hidden meaning that this book sheds light on her career or the viewer because they have been immersed into her creative life and skills. Each page links to the photo next to it, whether they both have circular shapes, hands, the same colour tones, the same textures, or link by being opposites. There is not an overall theme presented through her photography, but the images create a visceral sense, drawing emotions through her aesthetic. Her work also shows surrealism with these emotions because her images immerse you into a new world, creating new emotions and feelings.

Analysis of pages

Both of these images seem to juxtapose at a first glance, however taking a closer look you can see both images have a swirl in the centre thirds. They both are natural subjects, one created through its natural movement, whereas the other is flowers, but created in that shape through a man made shape. Kawauchi might have done this purposefully to present the beauty of the world whether natural or man made, or she could have just placed the two images together because they have similar leading lines and shapes. This is what I enjoy about her work, the fact that she has left the image to be interpreted by the viewer, with no writing to be influenced by.

It took me a while to understand the meaning behind these two images, but I came to understand that both images represent some sort of death. The image on the left presents prolonged death by choice, as cigarettes are used to satisfy its user, but is followed by consequences such as death. The image on the right also shows death, but not by choice. It is also a death generated by humans, with the intention to satisfy a user (the fish will be sold for enjoyment). I think Kawauchi was really clever placing these images together, each creating an idea of possible suffocation, maybe relating to how she feels as a photographer. I also took into consideration that this was her first book sold worldwide, and this could be her illustrating how she felt subject to Japan.

Image Analysis