Today I'm seeing so many photographs of garbage. They are industrial waste, garbage from homes, or electric appliances abandoned illegally in rivers or oceans. Memories of antiquated garbage in Tokyo's vicinity are new to me.
They were at the beginning not garbage. They were born because they were needed, and used and discarded when recognized as "unnecessary" things and labeled as garbage.
Are those photographers who choose garbage as a subject matter trying to discover the relation to the world through direct negotiation with the garbage? Or they want it through direct negotiation with things?
I that context, the three photos of Daiga are appreciated highly.
He encountered these things in the mountains of Nagano prefecture. He did not end the encounter as a mere sighting of waste. He perhaps discovered new eyes and conscious at that instance. It's easy to imagine the pastoral scenery surrounding him - the nostalgic atmosphere of rice paddie of Japan.
The automobile had been abandoned illegaly by it's owner with clear intent and is now covered with plants. Futon discarded in a hole dug by the field looks strangely erotic. A cheep bench is left alone among the wild flowers. A "thing" is always a thing. Abandoned automobile, futon, bench - the pastoral sceneries which surround them - under this kind of photogenic cicumstance deconstructing a scene to a "thing" and reconstructing is much more difficult than one might imagine.
As long as they exist on earth "things" are made by human and their necessities are based on human judgment. Human make things out of necessity, use them out of need, discard them when determined as not necessary.
Those discarded may be a prophecy of extinction life, earth, mankind are facing. They were always artists with genius who pointed the future correctly in every age...
Noriko KAWAMURA (May,26 1996)
Copyright(C) Noriko KAWAMURA 1996
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