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  ©Yoshihiko Ito

Yoshihiko Ito‘s exhibition “Puddles” is the third work in his “Patrone” series. They are photographed mainly from a fixed-point of observation. The prints were torn into pieces and glued together to reconstruct mosaic images with the fragments. Inspired by traditional Japanese picture scrolls “emaki”, with their manifestation of time and space, he created his own way of photographic presentation, unlike usual collages. It is a unique way of expression by Yoshihiko Ito.

“Although it is my first visit here, I have a moment to feel I have been here before” says Ito. “I feel people and scene passed by looks like what I saw in the past day. At such a day, I get around with a feeling ‘something peculiar has accompany me.’ It is interesting that every view in front of me looks more fresh than usual when I have something peculiar with me. It is only then that I set down my camera tripod. I stop the thing that is hardly come to a stop, for just a moment, and get a feeling of unspeakable pleasure. I want to have something touchable around me, which is originally untouchable but I changed it into touchable.”

“The weather was still hot; I went to the park at the end of summer. Lotus have had it, holes in leaves, soft pink flower came to seed like distorted cube. Feeling comfortable with the wind at times, the weather broke up. The dark cloud covered the sky above the park, and it began to rain buckets with lightning.
Big drops of rain got falling down on the ground and jumped up. Sonorous peal of thunder and the sound of rain falling down like a fall washed out the voice of children in the park. The sound of rain and peal of thunder increasingly became louder, echoed all over the park, and there appeared creeks here and there. However, it became sprinkling of rain by little by little, and stopped at last. Thunderclouds washed away the surface of ground and trees, and surroundings clearly came up by clear air. Puddles of varied sizes and shapes came out on the concave surface of ground. Still blue dark yet, sunlight shined in through the clouds, I could hear gradually children’s voice.

I have heard someone saying; “Don’t step in the puddles on the ground.”

Children began to play with puddles. They reflected sunlight, and reflected surroundings in the water like a mirror. Large mirror especially fascinated children. Children looked enjoying coming to the puddle to look into water, throwing stones into water, stepping in the water.

“Do not step in the puddles on the ground” someone was saying in a loud voice.

But, children were approaching the puddles at a moment between voices. They continued to play by the time the sun went down, and brought the mirror back. The park became quiet, and the mirror became smaller but was sparkling.” (Excerpt from Ito’s writings)

Around 20 gelatin silver prints are exhibited.

Yoshihiko Ito
Born in 1951. Graduated from the Tokyo College of Photography. Recent group exhibition includes “The Shadow” (Vestj_llands Kunstmuseum, Denmark 2005), “Photography Today 2: Site/Sight” (The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo 2002), and at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Hara Museum of Art, etc.

Recent one-person exhibition: “Bubbles of Lotus” (Photo Gallery International [P.G.I], Tokyo 2004), “Patrone” (P.G.I. 2000), “In the Shadow” (P.G.I. 1998), “Contact Print Stories” (Laurence Miller Gallery 1992).

Exhibitions at PGI