ZIGEN

I have long been fascinated by portrait photographs taken at the end of the Edo period.

The spirit of the people who survived the turbulent times, "one photo in a lifetime", and the direct power of photography.

Now that photography has become familiar,Not only have I lost the tension that my subjects are forced to take, but in a sense I am forgetting the fun of portrait photography.

This is because, like people at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, we should stare at ourselves and stand in front of a camera with the intention of leaving it to future generations.

because it is getting smaller.

That's why I wanted to throw the simple words "one picture in a lifetime" once again.

Based on that concept, during the filming period from 1995 to 1999, I indiscriminately photographed people who asked to be photographed.

The work was far more interesting to me than I had imagined.

The subjects standing in front of the lens were diverse, including people who were normal and people who performed extraordinary productions.

And when I finished photographing 258 people, what came to my mind was that they themselves had lived in the 20th century. It was a very simple and important fact.

 

 

The exhibition "Portrait at the end of the century" was held in August 1999 at Aoyama Spiral Hall.

​At this venue, analog color prints of 135 portraits taken on 8x10 film were enlarged to life-size, and "end of the century portraits" were exhibited.