Mother River Homing
Mari KATAYAMA
This photobooks collects images from the trilogy series shadow puppet, bystander and on the way home.
During Mari Katayama’s exhibition leave-taking, the book will be on sale at a special price.
A photograph is (as if I knew what I’m talking about…) something really strange I think. I don’t believe a photograph because everything in it is a lie. The only thing that I believe is that there exists a certain “truth” between the subject and the photographer (or the person who set up the camera). Different from the intimacy of the needles and brushes that are close to me, the ”truth” is like the force of solitude that pushes two bodies away from each other so they can’t become one, no matter how hard they embrace each other. So what exactly is that “truth”? A photographic film is developed, and the picture is printed or stored as digital data. It appears to me that there is a reason for every aspect of the process – the camera, time, processing, and sometimes the necessity to involve other people. The more of these things there are, the stronger the “truth” gets. ”We were certainly there” – this is what I feel, and I think this inspired me to photograph my friends and make them “bystanders” in the form of photographs and other objects in my work.
– Afterword by Mari Katayama