1 9 7 3
KEIICHI TAHARA
視るもの、見えるもの、感じるもの、全てが未知で新しく、
そして日本とは全く違う震える光がそこにあった。
1971年7月、パリへ着いて以来、驚きの連続から、ようやく観察する冷静さを持つに至った。空の青は宇宙の暗黒に繋がっていく蒼だった。乾燥した空気のなかを幾筋もの光の矢が石の建造物に向って突き刺さってていく。光の波動攻撃。
見た事も感じた事も読んだ事も想像した事さえない世界。光の粒子が眼に飛び込んでくる。光は粒子だ。本当に驚いた。
光がこの手で摑み取れそうな気がした。そう、この時から私の光への旅が始まった。子供の頃の様々な不可解な視覚的な記憶が「光」という一語に集約され、私の中に収まるべき居場所を見出した。パリの学生街、カルティエ・ラタンのエレベーターもない7階の屋根裏部屋から1973のストーリーが始まった。
光を留めるもっとも優れた手段がフイルムであり、光を表現できる媒体が印画紙だった。夜も昼もカメラを携えてパリを、そしてロンドンを歩き回った。後年、東京での個展の際の紹介文にデザイナーの倉俣史郎氏が田原桂一は2度シャッターを切っている。
1度目はカメラで、そして2度目は暗室でプリントを焼く時にと。
2016.10.05
田原桂一
Everything I perceived, saw and felt was utterly new. There was a quivering field of light, completely different from what I had become accustomed to in Japan. It was the July of 1971 when I finally settled down after the initial excitement of having arrived in Paris. I had regained the calmness to observe. The sky was a shade of teal, something connected to the pitch black of outer space. Arrows of light pierced the dry air, approaching stone buildings. Vicious waves of light. An entire universe I had never seen, much less felt, read about or imagined before. Particles of light jumped into my eyes. I was surprised to learn first hand that light is, in fact, made of particles. It felt as if I could grasp it in my hands. This was when my journey into the world of light started. A myriad of visual childhood memories suddenly made sense under the concept of light. I had discovered my place in the world. The narrative of 1973 started in the loft of a seven story building, no elevator, in the Parisian student district of Quartier Latin.
The best medium to capture light is film. The best medium to express it is photo paper. Days and nights I spent roaming the streets of Paris and London with my camera. Later, when I held an exhibition in Tokyo, this is what the designer Shiro Kuramata wrote on his introduction: Keiichi Tahara releases the shutter twice. Once when he takes the photo, once when he develops the film.
October 5th, 2016
Keiichi Tahara
