Kyoto is one of the oldest municipalities in Japan. It served as the official Imperial capital from 794 until 1868, and today remains steeped in history. The city attracted over 10 million foreign tourists in 2024, and is renowned for its bamboo grove, gardens, historic districts, shrines and temples. Yasuhiro Ogawa (b. 1968), a leading figure in Japanese contemporary photography, has been documenting the locale for 10 years. Now, the resulting atmospheric series, Lost in Kyoto, is central to his latest show in Berlin.
This body of work eschews the traditional conventions of documentary or travel photography, which revel in famous landmarks or Instagram-friendly photo-ops. Instead, Ogawa presents abstractions of the ancient city. In one shot, a cherry blossom blows in the wind, its petals dappling the sky like stars. Other pictures present mist-laden trees, mountains and rooftops, as well as out-of-focus figures captured from behind.
“In the 1,200 years since Kyoto was founded, the joys, sorrows, prayers, wishes, tears and struggles of so many people are layered on top of each other like a stratum,” he explains. “As time goes by, the weight of these layers accumulates. It is this kind of history of Kyoto that I have been trying to visualise over the past decade.” Looking through these images feels like remembering: a series of suspended moments.
The rest of the exhibition unfolds as a series of fragments. Many are the product of rail travel in China, Taiwan and other locations in Japan, captured through windows at speed. Under Ogawa’s gaze, the moving landscape loses its stability and breaks down, becoming blurred and hard to decipher – inscribed with the passing of time. Some series even employ hand-ground lenses, which lend further texture to image surface.
Yasuhiro Ogawa – Flowing runs 14 March – 30 May at Buchkunst Berlin.
Image Credits:
1. Yasuhiro Ogawa, On a Windy Day, Japan, 2016.
2. Yasuhiro Ogawa, Lost in Kyoto, Foggy Mountains, Japan, 2016.
3. Yasuhiro Ogawa, Lost in Kyoto, Cherry Blossom, Japan, 2016.
4. Yasuhiro Ogawa, Furious Clouds, Japan, 2017.
