My name is Keika Ishikawa.
I was born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan on 19** and now I reside in Tokyo.
I am a photographer.
[Contact]
My first experience with taking photographs was when I was in junior high school. For the reason I do not remember today, I walked around my house with my father’s camera in autumn afternoon. I remember taking two color shots; one is a picture of persimmon tree and another is that of a rural landscape. I still remember the reasons why I took those photographs. The persimmons looked tasty in rich orange color and the rural landscape had made me want to stay longer and gaze against the autumn afternoon sun. Without realizing then, this incidence has become the fundamental of my photography.
When I entered high school, I occasionally took photographs of outings and excursions on school events. One day, a friend of mine who joined the photography club happened to invite me to a darkroom and showed me photo enlargement and printing. It was very interesting and impressive experience and I started to visit the darkroom occasionally. However I did not do printing because I usually used color films and felt my photographs were not good. I did not understand how to calculate exposure and what composition meant.
In around 1990, my interest in photography did not cease but took another turn and I started to enjoy viewing photographs. It was very fortunate that many photo books were published in those days. I have been buying photo books and magazines ever since.
As a photographer, I remained taking photographs sporadically of travel and daily life. One day, my friend had lent me a small enlarger and dark room tools. I started to study reading the book entitled, How to Develop and Print Photograph and recalled how my high school friends printed photographs. I began to take black and white photos but I still did not understand how to calculate exposure.
In 1994, I moved to live with my partner and I left the dark room tools in closet for almost 10 years and forgot about it.
[Awakening]
Satoru Watanabe is a photographer I knew from 1995. In July 2003, he made an announcement about holding a new workshop called 2B on his website. The small-team workshop consisted of lessons in shooting, printing and gaining the ability to take photographs without depending on exposure meter.
As I recalled my lack of understaning how to calculate exposure, which kept me away from taking photographs, it was a good chance for me to start. Also, I loved dark room process. I thought for only a day and decided to join the workshop to learn photography from the basic. After 20 years of torment, I finally understood how to control the exposure levels.
I now enjoy participating in group-exhibitions and would like to hold solo exhibition in Japan and other countries. In July 2008, I went to the Arles Photo Festival and have participated in Photo Folio Review. I was delight to here from some reviewers that my prints were beautiful. It was a rewarding experience for me to find out that there was someone who appreciated my works. I gained confidence in my photography.
[Theme]
My theme in photography is to capture the beauty of what I see with my eyes and hopefully convey the feeling of tranquility, softness and helplessly sad sentiment.
[Objects]
My object matters are landscape taken against the sun just like what I shot in my childhood days, contrast between bright reflection on the water, dark tender earth texture and concrete surface. All of the things that would make me stay longer and gaze.
I have no preference to where I take my photographs. It could be in Japan or abroad. I believe that beauty exists everywhere and they liberate me from my inherence such as nationality, domicile, sex, age, and even time.
[Execution]
Some of my friends in photography call me “Keika – Print it Black”. What they mean is that I tend to print a lot darker than they do. Even when I enlarge my color photographs, receptions are, “They are like monochromes.”
Since my theme is to capture my perception of beauty, I used to take photographs only in black-and-white. Even today, I take color, but in fact they are less than ten-percent of my total works. I do not need colors so much because it is not of my interest to document, describe or be faithful in reproducing the object matters. In a darkroom where I create my image, all I need are light and dark shadows. Colors are merely used to substitute dark shadows.
In connection with my fixation on black-and-white, I think monotone clothes designed by Yohji Yamamoto is beautiful. It is because I find monotone is effective in underlining cut and silhouette of clothes and makes it standout.
I believe same principle can be applied for capturing beauty in pictures with contrast of highlights and shadows.
[After notes]
My creative goal is to share the same emotions through the captured beauty with others.
My pleasure and reward in taking photographs are that I believe there is someone out there that will like my photograph and feel the peacefulness and quietness of a rainy night in them. They will put my photograph on their side and have a good time for a while.
[Exhibitions, publications]
2008 Participated in the group exhibition “Vivitar”
2007 Camera magazine no.5 EI publishing, Tokyo, Japan
2007 Participated in the group exhibition “Mongol Rocks!”
2005 Participated in the group exhibition “Off Road Journey”
2004 Participated in the group exhibition “F16/aperture”
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