Abstract:
Photography is the epitome of a medium born of the Western intellect. In creating photographic artworks, one confronts the significant role of vision in the objectification of nature in modern times. In Chinese characters, the phrase "view of nature" (which is also used in this symposium abstract) implies "observation"—meaning to look carefully so as to understand—as well as “view”. Observation is an important act that precedes discovery and creation, and in post-Renaissance history, scientists and artists have all been excellent observers, relying especially on the power of optical instruments for precise observation.
This paper examines the depiction of nature using light and lenses over the past 500 years, focusing on the representation of plants and vegetation through the following three themes.
(1) Representations of Nature in the History of Painting (15th-18th centuries)
The scientific analysis of light phenomena by Euclid in the 4th century B.C. and Alhazen in the 11th century led to the study of lenses, and the first optical instruments were born in Venice in the late 13th century. From the end of the 16th century to the 17th century, microscopes and telescopes were invented in the Netherlands, and various phenomena in the natural world, from cellular tissues to celestial bodies, were observed and recorded. In the 17th century, the camera obscura became portable and influenced the painting process of Vermeer and many other artists. It can be said that the visual world based on optical systems had already been established 200 years before the invention of photography.
2) Representations of nature after the invention of photography (19th-21st centuries)
Photography, which was unveiled at the Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts in Paris in 1839, was not so much the invention of a new vision as it was the invention of a chemical technique to transfer an image projected inside the camera obscura onto a metal plate. Nevertheless, the precision and realism of the photographic image deprived painting of its role as a record of the world, creating a more immediate representation of the world that was unique to photography. In the latter half of the 20th century, especially in the United States, many photographers attempted to represent the natural landscape while synchronizing their concepts with contemporary art and the ecological view of nature after the "Silent Spring”(Rachel Carson, 1962).
3) The presenter's own representation of nature in environmental, urban, and social spaces.
Bio:
Born in Tokyo, after studying ecology and botany at Shinshu University in Japan, he graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, France, where he has been teaching since 2017. His photographic work questions modern civilisation through fieldwork on built environment and its history. He has been working since 2011 on the transformation of the landscape of Tohoku, the northeastern region of Japan, devastated by the tsunami, as well as the representation of public space after the political event in
2013 in Gezi Park, Istanbul. His works have been exhibited at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles, among others.
URL:
https://www.wired.com/story/photo-gallery-japan-seawalls/
https://www.fisheyemagazine.fr/rdv/cest-dans-le-mag/tadashi-ono-le-mur-des-interrogations/
http://issuu.com/vivoequidem/docs/tadashi-ono_exhibition?e=3604527/2068284
http://onotad.free.fr