Hiroyuki Takenouchi

CROW

Mar 4 − Apr 28, 2015
Photo Gallery International

Hiroyuki Takenouchi

CROW

Mar 4 − Apr 28, 2015
Photo Gallery International

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

  • ©Hiroyuki Takenouchi

With this series “CROW,” Hiroyuki Takenouchi challenges to show entity which hides in superficial reality.

 

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When I was a small child, I had a field day at my pre-school. The teacher told us to decorate the entrance gate by ourselves, with lots of colorful bird drawings. We needed to come up with ideas for colors. The other kids started suggesting “Red” or “Blue”, and I said “Black”. Immediately, the teacher said “No” to my suggestion. I was very surprised with his answer. In my heart I argued with him about using the color black, but in the end he wouldn’t allow me to use it.

 

“Black is the color of the crow, and the crow is scary. We should not draw it on our entrance gate.”

 

I was very angry with his answer because I felt like I, myself, am like the crow and the color black. This truly upset me. The color black always makes me think of the black crayon in the crayon box: always the last one used and, like the crow, most scared of by people for no reason. I don’t remember if I drew the crow on the gate or not, that day.

 

One day, in 2013, I was in Yoyogi-park, Shibuya, Tokyo. That day, this memory was still distant as was my sympathy with the Crow.

 

I came upon a crow who was sunbathing with unfolded wings. It was a holiday, so there were many people; even so, he didn’t care much about how crowded it was. He got my attention and I started to photograph him with my camera. The people’s perception of the crow being “Scary” or “Hated” was their own.He looked very happy, obviously not caring about what people thought about him. Taking photos of this crow gave me joy. The Yoyogi-park was close to my house at that time, and I found out that the park was known to be one of the biggest natural habitats for crows, in Tokyo. Once I discovered this, I haunted the park taking photos of them ever since that moment.

 

According to my research, crows have very good eye sight. They can see not only the full spectrum of light, but also ultraviolet rays. In other words, I felt crows, between each other, recognized themselves as many colors and not just black.

 

“Black is scary.”, “The crow is an unlucky symbol”. Those perceptions just come from humans.
The crow taught me that we should not be so one-sided in our thinking. Therefore, once you have another perspective, the world landscape totally changes.
This experience helped me understand that I was not wrong in my childhood. This affirmation proved to me that the things I saw in myself then were not scary at all. I felt like I had found the missing piece of the puzzle.

 

Hiroyuki Takenouchi

Hiroyuki Takenouchi

Born in Tokyo, Japan, 1982. Lives and works in Tokyo. Graduated from the Photography of Nihon University College of Art in 2008. He was the recipient of the honorable mention of the New Cosmos of Photography in 2008 and the special award of Shiogama Photo Festival in 2009. He had solo exhibitions SEASONS at Foil Gallery, CROW at Photo Gallery International.

 

http://www.hiroyukitakenouchi.com