Erico
December 24, 2020
Michiko Chiyoda
December 24, 2020
yachiyo ENOMOTO
(Saitama, 1967)
Graduate English course at Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages in 1987, graduate Photography course, Kyoto University of the Arts in 2017. I was an ordinary housewife until I was 48. I didn't know anything about photography. But that year, I enrolled in a photography course at a correspondence art college and graduated in three years.
The reason was that in 2005, when I was 38 years old, my only son died in an accident at the age of four, and I'had been in hell, unable to do anything about it. Ten years later, I suddenly encountered "photography" one day. I was fascinated by this way of expression.I wanted to use photography to free myself from the grief of losing my son.
My artist statement is "Visualization of Loss”. I wanted to use photography to free myself (and yours too) from the grief of losing.
My photography began with my son. I am sure that I would like to continue my photography with my son's death as my main theme.
"I want to use the medium of photography to visualize loss."
(yachiyo ENOMOTO)
Lucid dream
This photo was taken using instax film (known as Cheki film in Japan), and I developed and processed it myself. I did not use a camera. The reason why I decided to make this kind of work is that I wanted to capture the landscape in front of me.
Since August 2005, I have had the feeling that I have been having a long dream. because that year, my only son died suddenly in an accident.
After so many many years, I could finally wake up in the morning and go about my daily life as normal.But, I felt always that life was like I was dreaming. I was conscious, but probably dreaming. It was like a lucid dream.
Even though the landscape in front of me had a shape, my consciousness was not able to create a form. When I thought about how to express it in a photograph, I found this method. These photos were the very landscape I was looking at.
In Japan, this Cheki film and camera is used when there is a party or happy event. We often use it so that we can easy print and give them right away.
I think I really wanted to use this film to capture all the fun memories I had with my son. but I just couldn't do it any more.
I feel that the unformed things that appear in this film , this my work are actually the origin of the happy memories I wanted to capture with my son. NOW that he's not here, that means I couldn't form it into these picture.
It is also a work that questions the nature of photography.
I would like to ask whether photography needs a camera or a subject.
Any way I will never wake up from this dream.
This is the concept
"Nice to meet you. I'm Yachiyo ENOMOTO, a photographer. I'd like to thank you for watching this video. This work uses what is known as a Cheki camera in Japan. Yes, it's an instant photo camera. When you take the picture, the film comes out and is developed like this simultaneously . I don't actually use this camera body. I use this film(instax film) only. In the darkroom, I take out only this film from the film folder, and I develop the film in my own way. The actual size is this, so small. The reason why that I didn’t using this camera in this work, I was very interested in the uniqueness of this instant photo that cannot be duplicated. There is only one copy of this one cut. This is the antithesis of "photography is an art of reproduction”, On the other hand, I thought it was a symbolic of photography to "contain time" as a record. That's why I wanted to make my work with this medium. I also managed to contain in this film the unformed thoughts of my consciousness. I can't shoot with lens that I feel regret I can't take pictures of my future happy memories with my son anymore, and I also feel that my current daily life is fleeting and vain. That's why I wanted to express them in this film. My journey with photography continues. I hope to see you all again."