HRD FINE ART

Introduction

HRD FINE ART is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of photographer Toshiyuki Nanjo titled “suns / signs / spectators.” Being Nanjo’s second solo exhibition held at HRD Fine Art, this exhibition will proudly showcase new works from his signature series titled “suns” as well as a couple of works from “spectators,” a group of work to be publicly presented for the first time.

Under the title “suns,” Nanjo has been creating meticulous photographs of sunlight reflected on moving water surface with long exposure time. New works included in this exhibition are black and white digital prints, instead of color prints Nanjo used to produce. In these works the existence of light is emphasized through simpler contrast between black pigment and white paper color. Intriguingly, not unlike wooden block prints or copperplate prints using black ink, blank areas uncovered with black pigments and exposing the base photographic paper represent light, where non-existence paradoxically suggests existence, as if to allude to our everyday perception of light.

Meanwhile, in the “spectators” series Nanjo sets the stage at racing circuits, capturing blurred image of speeding automobiles in the course afar and the race-goers from behind in the foreground. These rather humorous images, where tension and lack of enthusiasm oddly coexist, evoke interesting thoughts surrounding photography, such as line of sight, speed and time, and subject-object relation.