shashasha

Ayako Endo’s photobook “Swaying Flowers” deals with one of the most ubiquitous themes in visual media – flowers. Endo, whose work as a photographer range from the world of art to the world of fashion, took a unique approach to capturing her subjects. After taking photographs of flowers, she printed them on fabric, tore the fabric surrounding the images, and scanned the results. This elaborate process softens the mechanical nature of the photographic images and produces captivating colors and textures that almost add an element of touch to the act of seeing. Endo’s subjects subjects range from simple bouquets to wild bushes and tended gardens. Whether close-up, blurred or well-composed, there is an immediacy and directness to her images that contrasts with the conventionally serene (or sexually charged) atmosphere of flower photography.

“In a sense, Endo first robs the flowers of their palpable qualities through the urgency of her photographic process, and then endows her images with a floral sensibility through the texture of the damp, frayed, almost petal-like fabric […]
[She] has succeeded in taking flower photographs that do not indulge in the preexisting, inherent beauty of their subjects. Within that mundane genre of flower photography, she denies the flowers their place in the spotlight by emphasizing speed and palpability […]”
― from Yuzu Murakami’s afterword (included in Japanese & English translation)