Time after time / Time for time

『 Time after time / Time for time 』

HARD COVER WITH CLOTH
Ａ4 SIZE
72 PAGE
WITH SLEEVE CASE

SIGNED　

PHOTOGRAPHS AND TEXT
Seiji Kumagai
Yoshinori Tomiyama

PHOTO IMAGES
TOMIYAMA ：20 images
KUMAGAI ： 26 images

PUBLISHED ：Bookshop　Marukuma　
Tomtomphotos
DESIGN ：Hideyuki Saito
TEXT ：Hiroyasu Yamauchi
ENGLISH TRANSLATE ：Haruna Ito
PRINTED IN JAPAN ：iWORD Co.,Ltd
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[The Endearment of an Emerging Image]

Text ： Hiroyasu Yamauchi

A scene from the external world appears upon paper or a screen, and takes hold as an image. To be able to carry that in your hand, to take out and gaze upon it when you please... For over 180 years since the advent of the photographic arts, people have continually obsessed over this pursuit, and for those of us in the 21st century, it all seems so very commonplace and is taken for granted. However.
If you think about it, the re-creation of an object before you, practically in its original likeness, is nothing short of a miracle.
Try to portray a particular scene or person in words, as though they are really there in the flesh. How rare it is to find one capable of satisfactorily performing such a feat. Even the great literary masters, in their depictions of the external world, mostly make do with abstract representations. The same for paintings and drawings. Realism has long been a fundamental skill in art in most parts of the world, yet the extent to which this is achieved is limited. The brush can only go so far in approaching the real, and truth be told, it is more precisely the technique to simulate reality that evolved over the years.
So we recognize that the task of rendering a certain scene or a certain individual in some mode of expression is a supremely difficult one. And in that regard, the photograph is remarkable. Using this device, a semblance of the external world emerges with the single press of a button. It is like magic.
We have become a little too accustomed to this magic. The smartphones we now carry everywhere can capture the world with more than adequate accuracy, so we no longer bother to be astonished. Certainly we are blessed that photographs have become such a customary part of our lives, but at the same time we have lost our wonder, our primal joy, and it seems a shame.
If we could but re-experience the wonder and joy at witnessing an image rise up before our eyes. Yoshinori Tomiyama and Seiji Kumagai were moved by such a desire when they began to shoot using old 8 x 10 Polaroid film producing ill-defined pictures.
Tomiyama chose to shoot the interior of his familiar home of many years. Kumagai pointed the lens down alleyways in Tokyo. The images generally lacked clarity and were blurry, and colors often did not come out as expected. Occasionally the exposure did not even produce a concrete image.
Still, something was captured there. You could see that it was a room, or a back alley. You also could perceive that it was this clock, that bicycle, that he fixed his eye upon. These images, pulled from the brink of oblivion, attain existence through some miracle. The sight of each of these shots is impossibly endearing.
Stay, if only for a while, on this side. Though it is inevitable that one must eventually vanish, if we could just leave a small trace, a vestige. The images these two photographers captured all seem to whisper thus. It is a prayer that we all make, deep down in our being.
This collection, TIME AFTER TIME / TIME FOR TIME, attempts to give form to this desire.