Kozo Miyoshi: "SAKURA" Apr. 1 tue  - 25 fri, 2003

In every spring Kozo Miyoshi has busied himself in photographing cherry blossoms since 1998.
In spring 1989, when what he calls a week of people intoxicated with the blossoms arrived, he drew in an instant in his mind a single route of Sakura reaching Hirosaki in Aomori from his place at Yoyogi in Tokyo. He dotted on the way such places famed with Sakura as the Shinjyuku Imperial Gardens, Kudan, Chidoriga-fuchi, Kamagaya, Tuchiura, Takato (Nagano), Miharu (Fukushima), Sagae and Hakutaka both in Yamagata.

Moving locations up to north as the blossom front advances, Miyoshi covers his route with frequent trips to capture his percept of Sakura in nature. It is not the bloom to accentuate the landscape, but Sakura itself that he has been in pursuit of.

Cherry blossoms are translated into light and shadow on the black and white print. Pinkish color of the flowers is absorbed into the skylight, and every pedal is replaced with silver grains on the film. Miyoshi says this process of translating cherry blossoms into his Sakura is most inspiring, and challenging at the same time.

His work of "Sakura" will awake a nostalgic sensation among the audience, reviving a sense of season peculiarly symbolized by Japanese with Hanami, the viewing of cherry blossoms, and aesthetic sense for landscapes with Sakuras.

More than 40 black and white prints in 20 x 24 inch are on display till April 25, Friday.