Monday, May 2, 2011

Keiichi Tahara - Through Parisian windowglass, darkly










Our cultural insistence on a personal viewpoint is not always matched by the availability of singular experience. But there is one subjective outlook that cannot be denied. Few people see the world imprinted on the particular canvas that is your window. Keiichi Tahara took these photographs from the windows of his apartment in Paris. The sky of Europe, framed and distorted by glass, is his subject. Behind these images, one can feel a brooding presence that is doubly detached—first by apartment walls, and then by the camera. The severity of these images supports the intensity of Tahara’s description of his work as "visions of feeling" and "recognitions of (his) position." He denies any scenic implications in these photographs, presenting them more as interior meditations than exterior explorations. And yet, he manages to reveal the chasm between both perspectives.

Fenêtre series (Windows) 1974-1980

3 comments:

Janas said...

Scans source: Photography Annual 1982 - Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1982.

Keiichi Tahara website

øשlqæda said...

darkly indeed. what melancholic majesty

Janas said...

Hello dear Owl! Thank you for the comment.