Seen: ふあふあの隙間 Fluffy Gap
Who: インベカヲリ★ Kawori Inbei
Where: Nikon Plaza Shinjuku The Gallery
When: November 6 - 26, 2018
Kawori Inbei has steadily been producing collections of portraits of young Japanese women for several years now. This show is perhaps her twentieth exhibition since 2011. If you’ve been unable to visit one of her shows or have yet to order one of her photobooks, an extensive selection of her (often nsfw) photography can be seen on her website.
Fluffy Gap (I’m unsure of the official English translation) is, thematically, familiar territory for the photographer. Per usual her subjects are young women that have replied to her request for models. Indeed, she told me that some she meets for the first time on the days of their shoots. Instead of her normal kit- a Pentax 67 and medium format color film- these photos were all taken with a digital camera. When talking about prints, digital photography’s inherently crisp, greenish dryness makes for a different viewing experience from the “wetness” of pictures made with medium format film. If medium format film gives her work a timeless quality then these images, especially at the scale they are printed, have a more contemporary feel. In this regard they’re fitting for the age. Regardless of the medium, Inbei’s best picture are intriguing in how they’re not too ”perfect” and often subtly bizarre. Even more important though is that her work is a rare chance to see women photographed by a woman- there’s more to this than can be articulated in words. Thankfully there are pictures explaining it.
Her newest book 理想の猫じゃない ( I’m Not An Ideal Cat ) pairs her portraits of women with text by the subjects themselves. Unlike the Nikon show, this work was created with her usual film gear. The book is published by Akaaka and is available in the Nikon gallery during her exhibition.