—The thoughts and expressions of the photographer, Tamaki Yoshida—
AI and virtual reality invade the real world, and the common understanding of people and the values that drive society are changing by the minute at a breakneck speed. Recently, under these circumstances, while many photographers are unsure about their approach to their production and anxious about the future, Tamaki Yoshida is an unshaken artist who believes in the potential of photographic expressions and develops her work with logical thinking and the overwhelming power of action. Her creative approach, based on her steadfast sense of aesthetics, is made up of a commitment to “reality” that has been handed down approximately 200 years since the birth of photography, and a stoicism that thoroughly pursues “get at the heart of the matter.”
The work this time strongly reflects her message comes from her sense of life that “humans are just one of the living creatures on the earth, and we must not disrupt the order of the Earth, which functions through the cycle of life of all living creatures.” In creating this work, the daguerreotype method that Yoshida adopted is a practical photographic technique that was publicly available in France in 1839, that is a traditional technique also has been called “early silverprint photograph” in Japan because it uses a silver-plate covered copper plate as the photosensitive material. However, her choice of daguerreotype was not from on the nostalgic longing that is so popular these days. The development of human society for the sake of its convenience has destroyed the habitats of wild animals, and it made these animals lose their lives not by choice. She told me she considered the daguerreotype to be the appropriate photographic technique for the sacred ritual of carefully mourning their lives.
The animal dead bodies are expressed using this technique, which is hard to photograph and develop and seems to be surrounded by an eternal light as a sublime “existence of life” that is distinctly different from the photographs we usually see. This work teaches that even after all this time, the basic premise of photographic expression is that there is the dignity of subjects. This exhibition, HINOME also will be completed as a sturdy series as her masterpiece, following in the wake of the previous SO-REN.

text : Naoko OHTA（KLEE INC.）
Curator of the exhibition

From the gallery’s official website

Artist Statement

This project focuses on the death of creatures left on the pavements after a traffic accident.
“The pavements” are stretching around on the ground like blood vessels. Their development has brought us various benefits for our society, has stimulated the economy, and revitalized activities for our daily lives.
Then, they also lead many climbers and tourists to the foothills of Mt.Fuji.
Life living in the bosom of Mt.Fuji was gorgeously bustling, originally supposed to end its life on the soil of the land and become a part of other creatures and the earth.
The increased activity of many humans will produce the death of many wildlife.
I believe that turning our eyes to its darkness is also the way to realize how we live.

Tamaki Yoshida