Takashi Tomooka
Takashi Tomooka - Drawing flowers with a camera -
July 21st - July 29th, 2023
Exhibition
Exhibition view
The most important element of my work is encountering plants that I have collected from the mountains, plants that have been carefully cultivated by plant growers, and plants that I have grown myself.
I've encountered a lot of plants so far.
The ecology and individuality of each plant
I am especially drawn to colors and shapes, and have been photographing shapes that can only be seen at that moment.
It's been 15 years since I created this series, but I'm looking forward to discovering many more plants in the future.
These are my photographic works, and there is a limit to the number of copies, so each work is signed and has an edition number.
Takashi Tomooka
Flower Photography In the summer of 2010, I met Tomo-oka Takashi.
The flowers, which were painted not with a paintbrush but with a digital camera against a white background, seemed to me to represent the beauty of Japanese integrity and his absolute aesthetics.
This photograph captures the kindness shown to flowers and trees, as well as the sincerity of the flower farmers who provide them.
In 2011, his works were exhibited at Ippodo New York, and were then featured in ELLE DÉCOR (USA) and AD (Germany), garnering attention. His works were then included in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Photography, and in 2013 he suddenly had a solo exhibition at the Pacific Asia Museum.
He is a Cinderella boy.
Ten years have passed since then, and he continues to photograph the grasses and flowers he encounters.
Keiko Aono
Takashi Tomooka
Takashi Tomooka
Born in Kyoto, Tomooka would often visit bamboo groves with his father, a bamboo basket maker, from an early age. He loved art from an early age and was drawn to the "two-dimensional, realistic world of painting, where it was hard to tell if it was a painting or a photograph." He copied Raphael and Da Vinci, and in Kyoto he saw many Japanese paintings, ink paintings, and Buddhist statues.
He worked at a flower shop when he was in high school, and worked as a gardener in landscaping temple gardens during his university days. Realistic painting and plants. Tomooka, who loved these two worlds, encountered photography in the design department at university.
He currently grows his own flowers in Tokyo and takes "picturesque photographs," which are contemporary Japanese paintings taken with a digital camera, and are akin to today's Rinpa.