艺术与设计 - Mizutani Yoshifa: Weaving the illusion of reality with color

▲ "Yusurika", Photo: Mizutani Yoshifa

Born in 1987 in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, the new generation Japanese photographer and artist Yoshiha Mizutani has become one of the leading young photographers in Japan, having published four books and won several world-class photography awards in only four or five years of his career. He evokes natural, unconscious psychological reactions and associations through a variety of brilliant colors.

▲ "Shaking Mosquito" (Yusurika)

When we face a photograph, what do we see? Is it reality, an illusion, or some kind of illusion of reality? For a long time, people tend to simply equate the images shown in photographs with what happens in reality. However, photography cannot be entirely reality or illusion; what we can feel in a photograph is some kind of intersection of reality and illusion. It can be said that from the moment the photographer presses the shutter, he is engaged in an act of "illusion making".

For young Japanese photographer Yoshifa Mizutani, his means of illusion-making is "extremely bright colors. The series "Yusurika" is the most extreme use of "color".

▲ "Shaking Mosquito" (Yusurika)

Yoshifa Mizutani's hometown is Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Growing up in a natural environment with beautiful mountains, nature was a very important part of his life. 2014, ten years after he left his hometown for Tokyo, and he had already made a name for himself in the photography industry.

When he was thinking about what to shoot next, he remembered his hometown and decided to shoot works with nature as his theme. When he went to the river to shoot, but accidentally captured some white granular things, after understanding that this is the shaking mosquito. Normally, it is difficult for the human eye to see this extremely small insect. However, under the capture of the flash, such a small insect is transformed into a snowflake-like white shadow.

▲ "Shaking Mosquito" (Yusurika)

Here's what he had to say about the experience: "I found myself in the midst of nature and was pulled in without conscious thought. Maybe I was just unconsciously capturing and searching for the scenery I saw as a child in nature; maybe it's just natural for all of us to search for nature. When I was observing nature in turn, I came across a swarm of buzzing mosquitoes. These mosquitoes are called 'shaking mosquitoes' in Japan, they inhabit rivers, ponds and other fresh water, and sometimes fly in swarms in the air. When I flash at them, they turn into a small glowing white dot, forming some kind of strange illusion, just like the fairies in nature".

He was deeply impressed by this magical landscape and photographed these beautiful and magical little creatures and put them together with other photos to form this group "Shaking Mosquitoes". When asked why he included other photos, he said, "I included photos other than the shaking mosquitoes in this work so that I could express my perspective and show the beauty and profundity of nature."

▲ "Shaking Mosquito" (Yusurika)

The reason why Mizutani Yoshifa is so observant of the things around him is closely related to his life experience. Born in 1987, Yoshifa Mizutani graduated from Nihon University with a degree in economics, and before he started taking pictures, he was once confused about his future. At the time, his school was located near Jimbocho in Tokyo, so he often visited the second-hand bookstore there.

Here, he was exposed to the literature of the American Beat Generation and the work of American photographer Robert Frank, which opened up a new world for him. He discovered that these American creators were always exploring their lives and futures through the mediums of travel, fiction, poetry, and photography, a way of life that he longed for.

▲ "Shaking Mosquito" (Yusurika)

Among other things, Robert Frank's photography gave him an unprecedented mental impact and made him think of taking photographs. He then borrowed a DSLR camera from his brother and started taking pictures, and after graduating from college, he enrolled in the Tokyo Comprehensive Photo Specialized School to study photography.

During his daily shooting sessions, Yoshifa Mizutani found that he was always unconsciously drawn to some of the colors of everyday life, so he made color an element to enhance the impact of his work.

▲ "Shaking Mosquito" (Yusurika)

In his first work, Colors, he consciously sought out the colors of the street to perceive the beauty of banal things and places, without deliberately thinking about the style of his shots, just spontaneously, and without adding any explanatory text to his work.

In 2013, he won the Japan Prize for Photography for the group "Color".

▲ "Colors"

If in "Color", Yoshifa Mizutani only used these colors and shapes to reproduce his imaginary reality by his own intuition, spontaneously and indifferently, then in his most famous series "Tokyo Parrot", he began to consciously use the element of "color" to create some kind of "illusion of reality.

He spent a year chasing a flock of exotic red-collared green parrots, cutting them out of the Tokyo night sky with a digital camera and flash, and then bringing them into his computer to reconstruct the colors of his imagination, transforming the standardized and mechanical modern city of Tokyo into a surreal space full of magic.

▲"Tokyo Parrots"

Compared to the "Tokyo Parrot" series, the "illusion" of "Mosquito" is even more perfect. Here, the reality of nature is no longer important; he incorporates his own memories, emotions, locality and other factors into it, and skillfully uses the technique of visual expression to wield the canvas of "nature", quietly erasing the "logical distinction between imagination and reality "The viewer can feel the stimulation of illusion and reality at the same time, forming some kind of broader world beyond imagination.

▲"Tokyo Parrots"

Of course, Mizutani Yoshifa's "illusion" not only charmed the viewers who appreciated his photography, but also deeply charmed himself as a creator. In his own words, "I often go into a state of sleeplessness when I am creating photographs. As soon as I take a picture, my mood becomes very high. People who are dependent on certain things cannot be satisfied inside if they lack them, because it is indispensable. Right now, photography is 'indispensable' to me. I want to be able to spend this life with passion, and I hope I will always be a photography dependent."

"The Rainy Day"