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  ©Naohisa Hara

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  ©Naohisa Hara

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  ©Naohisa Hara

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  ©Naohisa Hara

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  ©Naohisa Hara

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  ©Naohisa Hara

The Allure of the Focusing Screen

There is an important childhood experience that influenced the whole of my photography. We had a postcard-sized folding camera at home, old and broken – an antique, really. But I still enjoyed looking through the camera, with its aperture blades and shutter wide open, and seeing the world upside down on the focusing screen. I was also intrigued by getting it to focus at very close distances by extending the bellows far enough. What I mean to say is that my interest in the optical mechanisms of the camera came before I discovered my love for taking photographs.

            It was a while before my next encounter with a camera’s focusing screen, when I was studying photography at university and took photographs of packages and small objects with a 4×5-inch view camera at my part-time job. I learned that this setup suited me well, and later started to use it in my landscape photography.

            My most decisive experience with a focusing screen, however, didn’t happen until 1971, when I placed a lens on an 8×10 Deardorff large-format camera for the very first time and was simply overwhelmed by the beauty I saw once I dove below the dark cloth on its back. In that moment, I promised myself to use 8×10 cameras as much as possible in my photography, no matter the financial difficulties it would entail.

            I first began to photograph pomegranates with a 4×5-inch camera, but later revisited the subject with an 8×10-inch camera. It may be superfluous to point out, but looking at something larger than its actual size can lead to new discoveries and even sensations you haven’t felt before.

            The main part of this exhibition concerns a pomegranate tree planted by my father near the entrance of our house: the beautiful fruits it produced, the way they grew and ripened over time, and one fruit in particular that split open vertically to reveal its enticing interior. Seeing this fruit, I knew there would not be a better motif for my close-up series. I was also fascinated by the way the fruit shriveled and changed appearance whenever I was too busy to continue photographing for a while.

            Although it took until now to find an opportunity to present them, the pomegranates are the subject I have spent the most time with in my career. I hope you will enjoy the subtle gradations produced by silver halide, platinum, image processing, and inkjet printing.

Naohisa Hara

Naohisa Hara
Born in Chiba, Japan in 1946. Graduated from Nihon University College of Art’s Department of Photography in 1969 and finished a program at Nihon University Art Institute in 1971. Visited France and Germany via an artist overseas training system run by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1976. He also studied and photographed in Paris as a long-term foreign residency researcher through Nihon University in 1984-85. In 2016, he retired from Nihon University Art Institute.

Recent solo exhibitions include; Asia: Photographs of Shanghai (PGI, 2022), MIRAGE IV (PGI, 2018), Legacy of Time Passed (National Museum of History, Taipei, 2017), Asia: Photographs of Beijing ⁃ Hutong – Chai (PGI, 2013), Nostalgia (BOM gallery, Seoul, 2010), Asia: Photographs of Taiwan (2009), Asia: Photographs of Korea (2005), Europe: Journey of a Lifetime (2003), Venezia (2000), Europe–Platinum Print Collection (1997)(Photo Gallery International (PGI, called now)).

Group exhibitions include; 

Tokyo Museum Collection (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2026), Architecture x Photography, A Light Existing Only Here (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2018), eco (Seoul, Korea, 2012), eco (Seoul, Korea, 2010)  Domani:The Art of Tomorrow 2008 (The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2008), Viva! ITALIA (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, 2001), The Platinum Print Collection : Glittering Through Eternity (Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Yamanashi, Japan, 2000), Internationale Fototage Herten (Herten, Germany, 1999).