[SOLD OUT!] TSUGARU BY MASAKO TOMIYA
[SOLD OUT!] Signed copies with her handwritten postcards will be available for international orders through Reminders Photography Stronghold.
So far we have five copies and will add more upon coming orders.
*TSUGARU by MASAKO TOMIYA
*Signed (plus her exhibition postcard with her handwritten text)
*B5 size
*80 pages
*published by HAKKODA
*JPY 3,000 (*plus shipping and handling)
SUBJECT: TSUGARU by MASAKO TOMIYA
1. Your full name
2. Your postal address with country and zip code
3. Your phone number
4. Email address
5. How many copies would you like to place the order.
Send to stronghold@reminders-project.org
Tsugaru
I have held the camera in my both hands and have always felt this some kind of “unique calmness”, which exists in the land of Tsugaru, had kept on pushing my back gently from behind.
Eleven years have passed since I started taking pictures for this series.
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When I try to take pictures of the sight in front of me, I first face the object one on one. The line of sight between us does not always connect at the beginning but I keep on gazing at it and concentrate my whole body on focusing on just one point. I search for the thin thread of light that connects us. Then, we somehow start breathing in a same rhythm.
When I concentrate I always become unable to recognize things around me. This has never changed since I was a child.
I feel like my body disappears the moment I get focused on the object. It seems like I turned into an eye itself that looks through the viewfinder. The weight of the camera is already gone.
I, who became an eye, gravitate towards it, then stand next to it, and at last we blend into one and I become the object. I sometimes patiently try not to go further depending on what I am focusing on.
I do not know how I manage but I keep releasing the shutter. I am totally out there on the other side and playing around until I finish using a roll of film.
This is for an instant and it flies so quickly. From outside I may I look like a person lifting my head up standing in stunned silence. However, this is the moment that feels like forever and is the most wonderful, blessed time for me. The borderline which separates subject and object no more exists and you are in a world everything united into one.
By the way, this is not a thing only I experience. I heartily realize that the world of photography is so deep, interesting, and a little bit scary.
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After all these years of continuing things like this, I am grateful for finally being able to publish my first photography book, kindly supported by many people. Tsugaru is my starting point and I cannot think of any root stronger than this to move on creating better works.
I may never understand about photography in my lifetime. However, I will be always attracted by it and I know I will never stop taking pictures, same as many other photographers are like so until we all melt away.
Masako Tomiya
