“TWO SIGHTS PAST”
Book format with ring binding, Inkjet print, color and black & white, 77 pieces (excluding cover)
(Mika Kitamura)
I think longing and envy is what motivated me to first photograph her.
And I remember that before we were friends I mostly photographed her on the sly. But at that time affection and the desire of possess mingles when the distance between us accidentally diminished. Over four years - a long-time yet short all the same - we changed more than a little and so naturally the way we took pictures of each other changed too. Were I a painter I don’t think I would paint her, and if I were a sculptor I don’t think I would sculpt her. Always looking at her from the same distance, I learned both the joy and hardship of continuously photographing the same person. I now realize that this feeling is something only photography can capture. And so with affection I will gaze upon her with these mingled feelings of affection and jealousy, of superiority, inferiority, and love. And I will capture them all in a single photograph. I think that everything is okay.
(Yuki Watanabe)
I first encountered her when I was 20 and that is already 4 years ago. We spent more and more time together, and yet while our time together is more precious than anything it is with conflicting emotions that we photograph each other. Even now these emotions change, surface, and vanish.
And though the temperature difference of emotion may stay under the surface, she is a constant presence. I believe continuing things will discover some things. Over time our surroundings, relationships, emotions, will inevitably change. The preciousness and hardship of being together, the joy of having met. And I hope that we can change time into form. I thank her for my feeling this way.
Mika Kitamura
1982: Born in Fukuoka Prefecture
2004: Graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University Faculty of Arts Department of Photography
2005: Solo exhibition “Einmal ist Keinmal” at Shinjuku and Osaka Nikon Salon
2006: Entered Tokyo Polytechnic University Graduate School of Arts in the field of media art and photography
Yuki Watanabe
1982: Born in Okayama Prefecture
2004: Graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University Faculty of Arts Department of Photography
Selecting judge: Kotaro Iizawa
This is a work jointly created by two women. As turning the pages of a book, their photos of each other make evident their gradual growth other time. The photos wonderfully capture the passage of time. David Armstrong and Nan Goldin have done work based on the same approach, so what they are doing is not completely new. Still, the photos are a pleasure to look at. The relationship between them has a sister-like quality that conveys a sense that they share a great many things. Their photographic technique is about the same level, which I think gives the work good balance. They’re both young, and they have not been shooting each other for very long. If they’re still doing this in 20 years they will have created something truly exceptional.
