Exhibition in Chichibu

From July 14th to the 23rd, Koguma-za alpha cafe gallery in Chichibu City, Saitama will host my first cafe gallery exhibition in about 15 or 16 years.

The cafe is located on the second floor of a small house tucked away in a tight little neighbourhood, not far from Chichibu Station. Their specialty is omusubi (Japanese rice balls) served with miso soup. In the centre room on the second floor is a small exhibition space. When I visited at the end of May, an artist displaying her paintings was there not only displaying and selling her paintings, but also selling books, clear files, postcards and other things.

The theme of the exhibition will be local scenery. I made a book of Saitama landscapes a few years ago, and I showed it to the cafe’s proprietor, a couple of customers, and the artist with the paintings. They seemed especially delighted in how I saw and captured Saitama’s natural and rural landscapes. One point that was mentioned was that many scenes made the landscape look so broad. Japanese usually perceive their native landscapes as small, narrow, and tight. I concluded that it must be because I learned about landscape photography in Canada that my way of seeing landscapes is imposed upon the Japanese landscape. Hence, the landscapes in my photos often look more expansive than they real scenes are.

I’ve already given an interview with the local newspaper, so I’m looking forward to hopefully selling some of my old books and stirring up some interest in my work. I report will come once the exhibition is over.

Newspaper article here:

https://chichibu.keizai.biz/headline/493/