Osamu yokonami biography sample

Wandering the vast hallways of The Photography Show, presented by the Association of International Photography Dealers (AIPAD), and held this year at Pier 94 on Manhattan’s Westside, feels a lot like flipping through the pages of a photography textbook, one that starts with early tintypes and ends with the rise of saturated dye transfer prints used so often in the 1970s. For photography buffs the show is an indulgence on par with any of today’s popular vices, and for the wealthy, picking up a Sally Mann for $12,000 must be the ultimate thrill. The heroes of photographic history — Stieglitz, Sanders and Atget, Frank, Arbus and Sherman — are there, and tantalizingly within reach.

Viewers looking for images reflecting anything other than the annals of history, celebrity portraits, or cultural and political icons, however, must dig much deeper, as topical messages are few and far between. In this era of digital and mobile photography, where Instagram has upwards of 800 million users, The Photography Show is shockingly black & white. Expecting Ryan Trecartin-like experimentation that pushes the boundaries of photography, screens were noticeably absent. Despite these limitations, a few themes emerged that felt both topical and noteworthy, beginning with a surprising fixation on children, adolescence, and innocence.

While portraiture is still the genre du jour, the focus on childhood avoided feeling voyeuristic, and created instead an honest probe into the future. Will the next generation be society’s savior, as many current headlines suggest, or are they being damaged beyond repair? Take, for example, the work of Osamu Yokonami, a Japanese photographer who questions what he

Osamu Yokonami, “Assembly I-5” (2014)

For his project Assembly, Osamu Yokonami created a series of photographs of secondary school girls in different natural environments, questioning the notion of individuality within a uniform group.

Born in Tokyo in 1976, Osamu Yokonami works as an artist and a fashion and advertising photographer.

A concept at the heart of Japanese society

As the Art Loft Asia gallery’s website explains, Assembly illustrates to a certain degree the idea expressed by Gilles Deleuze, claiming that ‘individuals have become “dividuals”, and masses, samples, data, markets, or “banks”.’ In the photographs in the series Assembly, in their choreographed movements, young girls dressed in the same school uniform—illustrating the powerful role clothes play in the notion of collective identity—form a single entity. Surrounded by nature, they walk through fields, play in the forest or on the beach, in movements patterned by their environment. In the end, any sense of individuality disappears completely.

The artist’s tribute to the collective should be seen in light of the importance of this concept in Japanese culture. This theme is at the heart of Osamu Yokonami’s body of work; indeed, he gained attention with the series 1000 Children, also presenting schoolgirls in uniform, all the same age, holding fruit between their left shoulder and left ear.

Assembly (2010-2014), a series of photographs by Osamu Yokonami, can be viewed on his website.

Osamu Yokonami, “Assembly C-I” (2011)

Osamu Yokonami, “Assembly K-7” (2014)

Osamu Yokonami, “Assembly A-5” (2010)

Osamu Yokonami, “Assembly H-3” (2013)

Osamu Yokonami, “Assembly G-11” (2013)

I have recently fallen in love with the photographer Osamu Yokonami’s work.  The above photos are from her project 100 children.  I think that it is a lovely idea.  Below is part of an interview by The Raw Book.

Tell us about yourself.
I was born in Kyoto and graduated from Visual Arts College in Osaka. I worked for Bunka Publishing Bureau assisting a freelance photographer. I eventually became independent and [began] working on my own projects in working with editorial or advertisement work at the same time.

What is beauty to you and how do you define beauty?
[Anything] pure and innocent.

Film or digital? Why?
Film, because every film has their [own] meaning and is important to each.

What’s the story behind your first camera?
My parents bought me a camera first. Afterwards, I tried to take pictures by following the example of photography magazines.

Tell us about 100 Children. What inspired this project?
I had a chance to take portrait of local children when I went to Thailand as a photographer for a children’s magazine about 5 years ago. At that time I wondered what if I could take pictures of them with local fresh fruits. I found that it showed the personality of each child so much that the children even made the same movements.

What’s the orange that the children have between their shoulder and ear?
We called it decopon in Japanese. It is a type of citrus fruit – sweet orange with a lump at the top.

Why are all of the children wearing the same clothes?
When they wear the same clothes, their personalities or characters become more distinctly.

Also, why aren’t the children smiling? Is that deliberate?
As they really tried to keep the decopon between their shoulder and ear, they became very serious.

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