shashasha

In Akiko Kimura’s photographs, natural landscapes and phenomena seem to be captured in their naive appearance, as if stripped of all impurity. The curvature of the coastline between the ocean and the beach, the subtle patterns woven into the sky by cirrocumulus clouds or into the sea by a light breeze, the lines drawn into rocks by centuries of rain and erosion—Kimura photographs all these scenes and moments with a refreshing sense of acceptance. The experience of looking at the images in her photobook “i” is reassuring, but also full of surprises: boundaries that seemed matter-of-fact begin to dissolve and disappear, and at times the photographs seem like mirrors through which we can see new parts of ourselves.

“Everytime I look at my artworks, I’m provided with new ways of seeing them. It’s as if they are a mirror allowing me to encounter myself afresh each time. I like to think this allows my work to be re-born again and again whenever my photographs are experienced. With my work, I am happy when I feel there is nothing, but at the same time everything.”
— Akiko Kimura’s foreword