La plaque sensible

Risaku Susuki’s quest for the purity of perception.

The 58 photographs of Risaku Suzuki’s latest photobook “La plaque sensible” were almost exclusively taken in places that inspired impressionist painters such as Monet, Degas or Cezanne in the 19th century. The connection to these impressionist painters is no accident: with the invention of photography, painters had to redefine the art of painting and consequently opened up entirely new possibilities for their medium. In the same way, Suzuki has in his works always searched to widen the meaning and possibility space of photography and pursued a “pure” perception of the world, unmediated by his conscious photographic decisions. As a result, the photographs in “La plaque sensible” (named Cezanne’s definition of what an artist should be) are united by Suzuki’s perhaps most simplistic theme, resulting in a photobook that is both the most accessible of his works yet also the crystallization of his methodology and unique ideals.

“My goal is to retain as much of this clarity as possible in material form of the photographic print. If this clarity is obtained, the experience of looking at a photograph can be one of expansiveness as well as depth. This sensation, this response, is a profound experience. It is a profundity that arises anew with every look at a world that continues to forever change.” (from Risaku Suzuki’s afterword (included in Japanese and English translation))