Munemasa Takahashi

Laying Stones

Mar 10 − Apr 28, 2016
Photo Gallery International

Munemasa Takahashi

Laying Stones

Mar 10 − Apr 28, 2016
Photo Gallery International

  • ©Munemasa Takahashi

  • ©Munemasa Takahashi

Takahashi published his previous work “Skyfish”in 2010 and since 2011, has been participating in a project called “Salvage Memory” which involved returning photographs that were swept away by the tsunami to their owners in Yamamoto, Miyagi prefecture.

 

Photographs that were unrecognizable and severely damaged were exhibited in various regions around the country via the “Lost & Found project,” cofounded by Takahashi in 2012, to encourage communication between people who live far from the disaster stricken areas.

 

Since commencing on these projects, Takahashi had not been involved in creating his own pieces but through these experiences, he was able to explore why photographs are taken regardless of people’s cultural background and age. Furthermore during his time in Yamamoto, Takahashi experienced meeting with a new friend but also experienced his death by suicide.

 

Human communication is based on languages, although words flow out from our mouths, and memories become vague as time goes by. In this work, Takahashi expresses the process of facing the experience of his “friend’s death” without using words, with photographs of objects which visually illustrate “change” and “death”.

 

Until “Skyfish,” Takahashi did not express or tell his own story and had focused his theme on the structure of “recognition,” and was interested in how images are able to create stories inside the viewers without any extra information or explanation.

 

However, in his latest series “Laying Stones,” Takahashi embarks on a challenge to translate his personal experiences to visible images, as his photographs beckon to us to reflect upon our own personal experiences and memories.

 

 

Laying Stones

Munemasa Takahashi

 

There is a folk belief in Japan that says that a child who dies before his/her parent is punished by having to lay stones after stones, on the riverbed in front of the gate to the heaven, only to be demolished by a demon. The parent who lost the child will help out the child by laying stones to alleviate the child’s suffering.

 

I was reminded of the story when I saw stacked stones in the cave in west side of Tokyo. The thought occurred to me because a little earlier, my friend took his own life. I had always thought of the idea of laying stones for the deceased to be bizarre, but I realized that there is absolutely nothing I can do for someone who left this world.

 

When we lose someone very dear to us we reach out for any sort of rituals in order to have a foreclosure and accept a loss. When a certain ritual is not enough, we need to find our own process to achieve the foreclosure.

 

Then I decided to lay stones myself, and went into the woods where my friend chose to end his life. The woods I reached before dawn was huge and I had no idea where to find the spot. I walked and walked as if I am going to meet him. I was thinking where would I pick if it were me. 

 

Nothing special happened. I did not perceive any change inside me.

 

Then I started to photograph my collection of “soon- to- be- photographed-pieces” and dispensed them piece by piece. Ever since I decided to lay stones, I started to take photographs of flowers, plants, the light and the body, those subjects that will face the end and regenerate in a different form. Then came the cherry blossom season.

 

I also began to wonder, if this will ever come to an end, will the time come when I feel a closure.

 

It was then that I had an opportunity to go to Spain and visited a place a friend I met there told me about called “The End of the World.” The day was beautiful, the sun light sparkled against the ocean, and the destination of a pilgrimage felt more like the site of beginning rather than the end.

 

And there it was, the laying stones.

 

It seemed like the exact same human activity of “layering stones” held completely different meanings in two locations distant apart. One had a dark background, while the other, a bright background.

 

I realized then that there are only two things we can do for the loved ones who left us. One is to bid farewell, and the other is to never forget. The truth of the matter is, we cannot see them or speak to them anymore. So instead of giving a sad meaning to the action of laying stones, I believe it is important to pray that they departed to that somewhere where there is light.

 

This piece is dedicated to my dear friend, Kazuto Hoshi.

Munemasa Takahashi

Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1980. He graduated from Nippon Photography Institute Tokyo in 2001.

After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, he became a member of the Salvage Memoryproject which returns lost photos to their owners in the town of Yamamoto in Miyagi prefecture, one of the places hit worst by the tsunami. During this project, he took heavily damaged photos which had been thrown away and turned them into a traveling exhibition named Lost & Found Projectthat aimed to raise funds for tsunami survivors. He has published a catalogue of this exhibition titled Tsunami, Photographs, and Then – LOST & FOUND PROJECT(AKAAKA 2014). His other photographic books, SKYFISH(AKAAKA 2010), Laying Stones(VERO 2015) and Birds on the Heads / Bodies in the Dark(VERO 2016) have been published.