THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #9 Restoration

Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery will be organizing the first exhibition of 2017, Mayumi Suzuki’s “The Restoration Will.” She is one of the 2016 Photobook As Object workshop participants and she has been working on her book project “The Restoration Will” almost a year since the workshop and finally it’ll be launched at the exhibition. Prior to the show, Mayumi is sharing a series of her essay.

Mayumi Suzuki’s exhibition has been successfully closed now! Thank you!

2017 Mayumi Suzuki / The Restoration Will

Restoration

In the title of my book, “Restoration” means the recovery of something or recovery of the mind. I tried to restore many things in this project, for example, I looked through the eyes of the deceased with my father’s lens and also I recovered his portfolio.　In addition, “Will” means willing, including suggesting the future. Who’s willing in this title? Is it my will to restore my father’s testament? What did my parents want to give us as their last message when they were dying? This question was the basis of this project. Taking photos through my father’s lens was a way to see this and have a conversation with the deceased again.

For my exhibition, I set up ‘the dark room’ installation as life size. It was another “restoration” for me. You know, it was a kind of memorial place where I had printed the ship carpenter’s portraits with my father. When I was a child, I enjoyed staying in the darkroom with my father. There was the smell of the fixer, an image emerged magically on the surface of the paper. I had been attracted to it, maybe it was destiny for me to be a photographer, curiously, on the other hand, my older sister had never been interested in his work.

The items that were left after the tsunami, the darkroom, my Father’s portfolio and camera lens, they gave me good ideas to take photographs. All these things are alive in my mind, it was inevitable, I realized I was connected, it was “The Restoration Will “

Text by Mayumi Suzuki,
English proofreading by Mike Ward

READ ESSAY ARHIVE
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #1 FATHER’S LENS BY MAYUMI SUZUKI
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #2 BLUE PORTFOLIO BY MAYUMI SUZUKI
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #3 BLUE WAVE BY MAYUMI SUZUKI
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #4 Candle night
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #5 Family snapshots
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #6 Paper from Ishinomaki
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #7 Map and Snapshot
THE RESTORATION WILL ESSAY #8 Meaning of Edition

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