In photography, traces of light will appear as images. Gathering Light, I placed cameras in various locations around Japan and performed long-term exposure for approximately 6 months, from winter to summer solstice. The sun gradually changes its orbital position from summer to winter. The light trails, broken in places by rainy days and clouds, are recorded on the film as straight and dashed lines, almost resembling a barcode. This overlays the rhythm of the earth’s rotation and revolutions, unchanged for more than 4 billion years, with everyday scenery.

Ken Kitano, 2022

Photography depends on “light to bind” an image in a single instance.
The photographer as agent produces work with a clearly defined concept. However, there are times when I am in the pursuit of an image, standing beside the strange pool of developing fluid and the image can only be described as having “appeared” despite it being something I made myself. (I call this “the fluctuating edge.”)
For example, I carefully remove the camera installed on a roof for six months, clear away the debris and recover the film. When developing, I carefully scan the one that shows a faint trace of light rays from the sun and adjust with Photoshop. Then unseen traces of light jump out and float to the surface. The revolution of the Earth have remained unchanged for 4.6 billion years. In my photograph the rotation of the cosmos, from winter solstice to summer solstice, are etched with a myriad of lines.
The main focus and subject cannot be summarized as having an active  “doing or do” relationship. But perhaps there is another way describe images, different from being either “taken” (active) or “being taken” (passive), but as having “appeared” as an act or condition of the pool of development? Koichiro Kokubun’s The World of The Middle Voice writes about the world before the history of language becomes the confrontationally opposed verbs of “active and passive.”)
Finding a way (or approach) to unlock the pool will give a sense of great satisfaction (despite being slightly intimidating.)
And as a result, I want to take that moment home and place the world seen from that point on “the fluctuating edge” into the medium of photography.

Ken Kitano, September 2017

[Work sizes]

Small
Edition　10
Image size　approx. 377×560mm　(vary slightly depending on the ratio)
Paper size　508×610mm
Frame size   628×780mm (24×30 inches)

Medium
Edition　5
Image size　approx. 664×1000mm　(vary slightly depending on the ratio)
Frame size　approx. 1240×890mm

Large
Edition　3
Image size　approx.  960×1500mm　(vary slightly depending on the ratio)
Frame size　approx.  1240×1730mm

All works shown on this page are available in the three sizes listed above. (The black-and-white work [KEKI_GL21] is a contact print from 20 x 24 inch film, so only one size is available.)

Please contact us for the price.