Photo Respiration: Tokihiro Sato Photographs

Photo Respiration: Tokihiro Sato Photographs by Siegel, Elizabeth. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780865592179.

Trained as a sculptor, Japanese artist Tokihiro Sato first turned to photography as a means of documenting his work. It is through his photographs, however, that the artist has found a way to successfully blend process and product. Sato creates long-exposure photographs in which he travels through the frame of the landscape, drawing with a flashlight (by night) or reflecting sunlight back at the camera with a mirror (by day). These lights are recorded as traces of the artists presence, while he himself is rendered invisible by his motion during the course of the exposure. Installed as large-scale transparencies that are lit from behind, these glowing images embody presence and absence, and materiality and spirituality. This catalogue is one of the first records of Satos work to appear in the United States. The book reproduces fourteen transparencies in rich duotone, and features an essay by Art Institute of Chicago curator Elizabeth Siegel. Also included is an interview with the artist, in which he elucidates his technique and discusses the relationship between photography and sculpture that he explores in his work.