For a long time, I avoided taking pictures of flowers.
To be more precise, I avoided taking pictures of flowers for my artwork. When I was a teenager and just started taking photographs, I took relatively many pictures of flowers themselves. However, when I started studying photography in college and came into contact with the works and discourses of many photographers in a half-hearted way, I somehow developed the belief that taking pictures of flowers is a sign that the photographer has run out of themes, and that flowers and the sky are motifs in their later years. This belief seems to have taken root deep in my consciousness.
When I was in my twenties, I was more obsessed with establishing myself as an artist than anything else, and I spent a lot of time analyzing the works that were selected for competitions and awards. I saw very few works on the theme of flowers, and I could never have imagined the possibility of capturing them from a new perspective.
Nevertheless, I continued to be fascinated by the work of Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ron Van Dongen, Imogen Cunningham, Karl Blossfeldt, and other photographers who had photographed flowers. I picked up their books and was always struck by the beauty and depth of their work, but perhaps I was a little afraid to enter that realm myself. A strange balance between admiration and avoidance of flower photography had been cultivated in me over a long period of time. This complexity, which could be described as a twist or sullenness, finally took root as part of my own creativity in recent years. It took shape in the form of my work "FLORA/ECHO", an exhibition and photobook.
This series of works consists of flowers and plants clearly photographed from an observational point of view and printed using an alternative photographic technique called lumen prints. The project began as an experiment with photographic materials at the university. When I achieved a certain level of success in my research, I chose flowers as the motif of my artwork to which I applied the technique. Flowers and plants are primitive motifs for photographers, as exemplified by the fern photograms of W. H. Fox Talbot, one of the inventors of photography, and therefore seemed an appropriate choice for research and practice with photosensitive materials.
In the course of my production, I began going to nearby parks and riverbanks to collect plants, and as a result, I began photographing more and more landscapes with flowers in them. I am not sure if turning my lens to flowers in my mid-forties is a sign that I am entering my later years as a photographer, or if it is simply the fruit of my passion for flowers as a subject. The only thing I can say is that I no longer consider flowers as a subject to be avoided.
Nevertheless, flowers are still difficult to photograph. I once again feel that flowers are not an easy theme or motif to photograph or to sublimate into a work of art. How will I establish a relationship with them? And what is the meaning of flowers in photography? I have no choice but to continue photographing and creating while searching for answers to these questions.
Ryo Ohwada
Born 1978 in Sendai, Japan. Graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University, Department of Photography, and completed the Graduate Course in Media Art at the same university. In 2005, he was selected as one of the "ReGeneration.50 Photographers of Tomorrow" by the Kunstmuseum Elysee, Switzerland. In 2011, he received the New Photographer Award from the Photographic Society of Japan. He is the author of "prism" (2007, Seigensha), "Gohyaku rakan (Five Hundred Arhats)" (2020, Ten'onzan Gohyaku Rakanji Temple), "Journal during COVID-19 State of Emergency" (2021, kesa publishing), "Shashin seisakusha no tame no shashingijutsu no kiso to jissen (The Basics and Practice of Photography Technology for Photographers)" (2022, Impress), and with poet Chris Mozdel, "Behind the Mask" (2023/Slogan), etc. Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts, Tokyo Polytechnic University.
www.ryoohwada.com
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