[POSTPONED] PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT exhibition by 2019 workshop participants
This exhibition was originally scheduled to be held at the end of April 2020, but has been postponed to October in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Please wear a mask and disinfect your hands when you visit the exhibition.
[Message from exhibition participants]
Regarding postponing the 2019 Photobook as Object exhibition–
As the RPS gallery announced earlier yesterday, we have discussed and decided to postpone the exhibition due to the situation of the rapidly spreading COVID-19.
Since the Photobook As Object workshop last May, we have been working hard on developing our photobooks and preparing for the exhibition. However, due to the current situation with COVID-19, we have decided that postponing the exhibition till October is the best way forward for the following reasons:
- The COVID-19 could spread in the exhibition space.
- Depending on the government’s future decision, visitors could be forbidden from visiting the exhibition.
- Due to the current worldwide situation, such as self-quarantine and delays in the international postal service, some of the participants are finding it difficult to send their latest dummy books to Tokyo.
We are sorry that we had to come to this decision, especially since many people have been looking forward to it and many supported us in numerous ways with our photobooks. We would be grateful if you could visit the exhibition in October to look through our photobooks in safer circumstances.
Best regards,
2019 Photobook As Object exhibition participants
art work by Moe Suzuki
Exhibition Runtime: 29th April (Tue) – 10th May (Sun) 2020→ 3rd – 14th October (Tentative plan)
1pm-7pm (open all day / free admission)
Online Gallery Talk by the participating artists (about their projects and the photo books): 3rd Oct (Sat) 7pm
Gallery:Reminders Photography Stronghold
2-38-5, Higashimukojima, Sumida-ku, Tokyo
The upcoming PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT exhibition will feature a selection of several participants’ work and the progress of the photobook each made and developed during the initial photobook making workshop (held at Reminders Photography Stronghold last May) as well as the continued development and evolution of each participating artist’s project since.
The initial approach of the workshop is to develop the artist’s photographic project into photobook form by first delving deeper into the narrative of their work. Participants then look at how employing various perspectives, visual approaches and design techniques might better tell these stories to a broader audience in the in-depth and nuanced way that the photobook form allows.
The ‘photobook as object/photobook who cares’ workshop allows participants the space to learn new techniques and ways-of-thinking from the productive, constructive criticism of both the workshop’s tutors and their peers with this process ultimately helping each photographer eventually create a photobook that tells their story in the best way possible. In 2019, participants in the PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT workshop were more international than ever with photographers hailing from countries such as Peru, the U.K, Chile, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan and of course, Japan. All participants worked alongside one another, sharing their unique worldviews and insights into each other’s projects, helping participants to discover elements of their narrative that might be unclear or entirely missing from their book and make it more accessible to international audiences.
This whole process ultimately strengthened each photographer’s initial dummy and also gave them the tools to continue further developing more fleshed out dummies after leaving the workshop. Nearly a year has passed since the 2019 workshop participants said goodbye to one another. Since then each has continued working on improving their rough dummies using the skills they learnt in the workshop and has pushed themselves closer towards the final photobook they want to make and publish; their own’ PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT’.
The artists will continue to work on their handmade photobooks within the gallery space throughout the exhibition period. We hope this will give visitors a unique insight into all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes creating intricate bodies of work such as these. Artists will also be around to talk to visitors about their photobook and striking up conversations with them about their process, such as the failures they encountered along the way, are welcomed and encouraged!
For further details about each participating artist and their photobook on display, please keep an eye out on our Facebook page for updates!
Artists:
Alla Mirovskaya
Chiawen Lin
Claudia Hans
Makoto Kawakami
Mie Inada
Moe Suzuki
Paola Jiménez
Yudai Omura
※The exhibition features photobooks from eight of the thirteen participants from 2019’s Photobook as Object workshop who volunteered to have their work shown.※
Tutors:
Jan Rosseel
Rosseel studied documentary photography at the Royal academy of arts in The Hague, The Netherlands and photojournalism at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark.
His work is best described as visual storytelling, between narration and documentation. He works as a collector of memories using photography, video and objects. The starting point of his research-based projects are historical events and the notion of memory. Stories that do not only reconstruct historical events but stories that also ask questions about the reliability of our memory and our brain. He works as an investigator using methods of scientific research and journalism to build a narrative where fact and fiction coexist. His work has been published in the New York Times, Le Monde, IMA Magazine and many other magazines and papers. He is a lecturer at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and has been guest lecturer at the Master of Photography AKV St. Joost in Breda and MA Photography Luca School of Arts in Brussels.
Yumi Goto
An independent photography curator, editor, researcher, consultant, educator, and publisher | a co-founder and curator for the Reminders Photography Stronghold – curated membership gallery space in Tokyo, enabling a wide range of photographic activities | her work focuses on the development of cultural exchanges transcending borders | collaborates with local and international artists who live and work in areas affected by conflict, natural disasters, social problems, human rights abuses, and women’s issues | often works with human rights advocates, international and local NGOs as well as humanitarian organisations | nominator and juror for the international photographic organisations, festivals and events.