PROFILE

Description

Description

From the 1970s to the 1990s, when Keiichi Tahara expanded his activities from Paris to Tokyo and then to the rest of the world, it was a time when many Japanese expressionists spread their wings to the world and their creativity was recognised. In this sense, Tahara was one of the photographers/expressionists who rode the momentum and led the way.
I first became aware of Tahara through the book “Architecture at the End of the Century in Six Volumes”. It was in the conference room of the company where I used to work. Perhaps he was introduced to us by Shiro Kuramata, who came to us with several books from the six-volume photographic collection , which had just been published by Kodansha. I was first surprised by the luxurious golden binding and the weight of the book, and was even more astonished when I turned the pages. The pages were filled with gorgeous, never-before-seen architectural spaces representing European culture in all its splendour. On the other hand, Tahara, the photographer, was a little off from the style of his work (this is just my personal impression), but he was soft-spoken and answered our simple questions one by one in a polite manner. A few years later, when I visited Prague and Budapest, I visited the hotels and spa facilities I had seen in the photo book.
Tahara cannot be summed up by the term ‘Japanese photographer’. Some of his works have an overwhelming sense of scale, others speak of mental images with particles of light, while others are portraits backed by deep insight, and the themes and styles of his subjects are free and rich. However, it is the unique ‘light’ of the work that proves that it is his work. I knew that he was not only a photographer but also an artist of light, expanding his activities into architecture, gardens and cities, but the actual scale and content of his work was beyond my imagination during this interview. He was an expressionist who, in Hiroko's words, ‘chose the camera as his tool to grasp the light’.
For this interview, we spoke to his wife Hiroko Tahara, who is also involved in curating Tahara's exhibitions, and photographer Bunsei Matsuura, who supports Tahara as a staff member and organises Tahara’s works and materials.

Masterpiece

Works

‘City (Ville）‘series (1973-74)
‘Window（Fenêtre）‘series (1973-81)
‘Photosynthesis‘series (1978-1981, 2016)
‘Portrait‘series (1978-1987)
‘éclat’ series (1979-1983)
‘Polaroid’ (1984)
‘Torso’ series (1987-1995)
‘Egypt’ series (1996)
‘Hands’ series (-2017)

Lightscapes

‘Obelisk of Light’, Tokyo/Japan (1987)
‘Traces of Light’, Yokohama/Japan (1988)
‘Festival of Light’, Lyon/France (2000)
‘Four Dimensional Pillars’, Shiodome/Japan (2000)
‘Echoes of Light’, Paris/France (2000)
‘White Nights’, Paris/France (2003)

Sculpture, Architectural works

‘Garden of Light‘, Hokkaido/Japan (1989)
‘Dragon Battle‘, Angers/France (1993)
‘Gates of Light‘, Carlow/Ireland (2001)
‘The Door of Light‘, Lille/France (2003)
‘Chapelle Rouenget‘, Kyoto/Japan (2003)
‘Cheng’ Xinzhuang‘, Taiwan (2011)
‘New Exterior Wall of the University of Paris VII’, Paris/France (2007)
‘GINZA888 Building’, Ginza/Tokyo (2008)

Branding work

Moet Chardon (1999-2007)
Dunhill (2000-2003)
Cartier (2001-2006)
Angers Noir, World (2003-2008)

Main publications

“ECLATS”, GARERIE de FRANCE (1982)
“Architecture at the End of the Century in Six Volumes”, Kodansha (1984)
“METAPHORE”, Kyuryudo (1986)
“KARAKUCHI TARAKU”, PARCO Publishing (1988)
“KEIICHI TAHARA Photographies”, Desastre (1990)
“The Shape of Gloss Kanazawa” Takakuwa Art Printing (1992)
“Tenshi no Kairo (Angel's Corridor)”, Shinchosha (1993)
“IN-BETWEEN”, Caixa Tarragona (1994)
“Le Louvre Architecture”, ASSOULINE (1995)
“LES ANGES DE CROATIE”, ASSOULINE (1995)
“OPÉRA de PARIS, 4 volumes”, Bibliotheque (1995)
“ART NOUVEAU”, ASSOULINE (2000)
“National Diet Building”, Kodansha (2015)
“Geihinkan Akasaka Rikyu”, Kodansha (2016)
“Photosynthesis 1978-1980”, SUPER LABO (2016)

Interview

Interview

‘It's up to you whether you want my work to be treasured or rubbish.’
He said smilingly to me at ......, which is a big pressure for me.

Keiichi Tahara's Archive

ー　In the past, I have had Mr Tahara photograph the work of Shiro Kuramata, and I still remember his personality and the way he worked. Today, we would like to talk about the archives and activities of this Keiichi Tahara.

Tahara　Thank you very much. I heard that Mr Kuramata was a special person for Tahara.

ー　That Mr Tahara passed away in 2017 at the age of 65. What is the current status of his work and materials?

Tahara　Tahara decided to move out of his studio and home near the Canal Saint Martin in Paris and bought a property in Hakone to serve as his new base. It was a large space, which was convenient for setting up a workshop and darkroom, and for storing the vast amount of work and baggage from Paris. He made major changes to the interior, bringing in furniture and other items he had used in Paris to create a comfortable space, and moved his base to Hakone in 2006.

The space houses Tahara's large works of art as if it were a gallery. The living space has been renovated into a comfortable space with antique furniture from Paris

ー　It's a really lovely space.

Tahara　But before the first anniversary of Tahara's death, we decided to leave the large glass and stone works, still in their wooden boxes, here and deposit the negatives, positives and silver halide prints in a humidity-controlled space in Tokyo.

Matsuura　The organisation is still ongoing. Printed works are converted into data in Excel, while positives and negatives are filed and stored by work and series. The number is enormous, and although we have organised the most valuable of the representative works, we have not yet been able to keep track of the rest.

Tahara　Tahara was an organised person, and no matter how busy he was, he kept his desk perfectly organised when he went to Paris, and his computer was also organised, so I was able to keep track of it. Mr Matsuura went to the warehouse yesterday to organise things again.

Matsuura　Even the same negative can be a different work if it was printed at a different time, in a different colour tone or framing. I share such detailed classification information with Hiroko.

Tahara　Even before his death, his representative works such as‘City（Ville）’and ‘Window（Fenêtre） were already in the collections of museums, universities and research institutions around the world, including the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Centre Pompidou, Opéra Garnier National, European Center of Photography and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. In the future, however, I would like to see them collected by museums and private collectors in a coherent form.

Phantom project with Min Tanaka

ー　After Tahara's death, you have taken on a major role in taking over his vast body of work, including organising exhibitions.

Tahara　I became his wife in his final years, and I was charged with protecting his 40 years of work and passing it on to the next generation. However, I had been in a completely different world before and knew nothing about photography, so I have worked selflessly for the past seven years with the support of his staff in both Japan and France and people who were close to him. He is recognised as a photographer, but in fact he was active in many different genres and felt uncomfortable being defined as a ‘photographer’. I would like to respect that feeling in my succession.

ー　How do you connect His work?

Tahara　Tahara started organising his photographs about a year before he died, and I came to know many of his works that I had never seen before. One of these was a project with Min Tanaka, which shocked me the moment I saw the work. Tahara also said, more strongly than ever, that he absolutely wanted to keep this, so I created an opportunity to invite members of the media to his home to see his work. After that, the conversation gradually expanded and an exhibition at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art was decided upon. Unfortunately, the exhibition was held in autumn 2017, two months after his death.

ー　What was the project with Min like?

Tahara　In the autumn of 1978, 27-year-old Tahara met 33-year-old Min Tanaka in Paris, and they hit it off and set off on a journey to explore the relationship between light and the body. It was a three-year journey that took them to Paris, Rome, New York, Iceland, Bordeaux, and in Japan to Tokyo and Kujukuri, where Tahara spent three years photographing Min's body as it reacted to the land, nature, light and air. But the fruits of this collaboration were never published.

ー　Was it never published?

Tahara　However, 35 years had passed since the filming, and at the same time that Tahara discovered these works for the first time in decades, Mr Tanaka called him by chance. This reunion led to the publication of the photographic book "Photosynthesis 1978-1980" in 2016, and the first new photographs in 36 years. The exhibition was a selection of 46 works and was organised as the exhibition ‘Keiichi Tahara “Photosynthesis” with Min Tanaka’, which also featured a performance by Min.

ー　The session between the two must have been very stimulating.

Matsuura　Both of you were still young, renting a car and travelling around the country. We would get off at a place that inspired us and shoot there. I heard that Min shaved his body hair from his shins to his eyebrows for this session, and that he was so enthusiastic that he eliminated all unnecessary things from his body. I think it was a blissful time for him as an artist.

ー　What did this reunion after 35 years bring to the two of you?

Tahara　With Min's introduction, Tahara organised the exhibition ‘Keiichi Tahara in Joshibi Project “Oku no Hosomichi”’ at the Joshibi University of Art and Design Museum, and also published his own book for the first time. In the year between the reunion and Tahara's death, Min was a truly close friend and rushed to see him from his home in Yamanashi a few hours before his death. Above all, perhaps this reunion gave Tahara a mysterious power, for in addition to the Hara Museum, solo exhibitions were also decided at the National Museum in Prague and the Ginza Pola Museum Annex.

ー　It was Tahara's strong will that led to the three exhibitions.

Tahara　His condition had deteriorated by around February 2017, when he travelled there after receiving a request from the Prague National Art Gallery. The exhibition was entitled ‘Keiichi Tahara: Photosynthesis 1978-1980’ and ran from March to August 2017, but he died on 6 June and we could not go to the exhibition. Therefore, a young photographer who admired Tahara, took photos of the venue, which I edited and compiled into a booklet. If Tahara had lived, we were planning to tour the Tate Modern in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, as well as Paris and Rome, which Min and he had visited, but this has not been possible. However, the works exhibited in Prague are still stored there.

Exhibition ‘Keiichi Tahara: Photosynthesis 1978-1980’, held in the National Museum in Prague.
©Kenta Umemoto

ー　Mr. Tahara was very active until just before he passed away, wasn't he?

Tahara　Until two weeks before he passed away, he continued to take portraits of performers such as Rie Miyazawa and Yohji Yamamoto for the TV Asahi and BS Asahi programme White Museum, which featured artists from a variety of genres. I don't know anyone who has done his job and fulfilled his responsibilities as well as he did. He was usually a man of few words, but his behaviour showed a deep appreciation for others.

Keiichi Tahara, Encounter with Light.

ー　What is Mr Tahara's origin?

Tahara　He was born and raised in Kyoto. His family ran a dyeing business, his grandfather was a photographer and his divorced parents painted. Growing up in such a home, he naturally learnt to handle a camera, and when given a camera, he showed first-class talent. In 1972, after graduating from high school, he went to France to work as a lighting technician for the Red Buddha Theatre, a theatre company run by avant-garde musician Tsutomu Yamashita, and remained in Paris when the company moved to the USA. He began life in Paris at rock bottom, earning his daily bread by taking snapshots of tourists with a Polaroid camera.

ー　What was the reason why he stayed in Paris?

Tahara　I think it was the light of Paris, the first foreign country he visited. He says: ‘I wanted to capture the blue sky of Paris, a light different from that of Japan.’ This, I believe, is the starting point of Tahara, a photographer of light. He may have chosen the camera as a tool to grasp light.

ー　That's how you started photographing Tahara's light, Paris. From here, we would like to ask Hiroko and Matsuura about Mr Tahara's representative works and his progress.

Tahara　The ‘City’ series, a representative work from his early years, was Tahara's first work as a photographer, in which he encountered the city of Paris and its light. He explains his feelings: ‘For the first time, I even felt as if I could grasp the light. I felt light as a kind of substance, and that may have been the trigger.
The‘Window‘ series from the same period was born from his days spent staring at the skylight in the attic of the elevator-less apartment where he lived. 'The window panes, which have not been cleaned for five years now, sparkle in the sun. ‘Between the clouds, the windows and the drifting smoke, my unfocused gaze blends into the morning light that is almost noon,’ he recalled.

ー　Then he developed into the ‘Portrait’ series, in which he took portraits of artists such as Joseph Beuys, and the ‘éclat’ series, in which he captured light in an abstract way.

Tahara　Koshi explains about ‘éclat’ series : ‘Light leaves traces in space in the flow of time, and then disappears. If there is a light that should be fixed, I feel even more strongly that it should not be a ‘form’ at all. Looking back on Tahara's footprints, we are surprised at his precocious maturity as a photographer and expressionist. His early series of photographs - ‘City‘, ‘Window’, ‘Portrait‘ and ‘éclat’ were taken when he was in his twenties and thirties, and they reveal a deep insight. It evokes something timeless, something eternal. His works, such as ‘Window’, were well received, and in 1977 he was awarded Arles International Festival of Photography Newcomer's Grand Prix.

ー　The works you then worked on ambitiously, such as ‘Torso’, are also typical of Tahara's work.

Tahara　‘Torso’ is about ‘the guardian deities that dwell in the Louvre Palace, who come as close as they can to people's imaginary or ideal bodies’. ‘Torso’ is a theme he has been working on for more than a decade since the mid-1980s, exploring new photographic possibilities by burning negatives not only on paper, but also on cloth, glass and lithographs.

ー　The subjects are diverse, but they all have a nobility that is uniquely Tahara's.

Tahara　I met him when I was in my 30s, and I respected him from that moment on, but I sometimes think that I would have been able to accept and understand him better today.... In addition, unfortunately, photography is not recognised as an art form in Japan as it is in the West, and respect for photographers is not as high as it should be. It is true that photography is a fleeting process, and negatives can be printed many times. However, a photographer spends hours in the darkroom until he is satisfied with a single print. The quality of the vintage photographs he burns is comparable to that of paintings in terms of the fineness of grain and the contrast between light and dark. When you hold one of Tahara's works in your hand, you are struck by its delicacy, depth, beauty and elegance.

ー　After receiving a major award, Tahara went on to work on major works such as ‘Architecture at the End of the Century’ and ‘OPÉRA de PARIS’, the former of which was published in 1984 by Kodansha as ‘Architecture at the End of the Century: Six Volumes’, marking his triumphant return to Japan.

Tahara　I believe his work can be divided into spontaneous and commissioned projects. ‘OPÉRA de PARIS’ series you saw the other day was commissioned by the French government and took eight years to complete, but he said, ‘For me, “Architecture at the End of the Century” and “OPÉRA de PARIS ” are not works of art. The ‘Windows’ series and the photographs with Min Tanaka were what I really wanted to take’.

ー　Certainly, ‘Window’ and ‘éclat’ are abstract art that captures the essence of light and mental landscapes, while ‘OPÉRA de PARIS ’ and ‘Architecture at the End of the Century’ may reflect the strong characteristics of Mr Tahara as a ‘director of light’, who went to Paris as a lighting engineer. In this sense, he was truly a seeker of light.

Tahara　Tahara, who originally went to Paris as a lighting engineer for a theatre company, loved the stage, and when he saw ballet, opera and kabuki, he would talk about his own way of seeing and feeling about the behaviour of the performers, stage effects and staging. In fact, his spatial photography has a unique angle and sensitivity that only he can capture, and in the background is his will to understand the history and stories behind the images. His eyes do not gaze at material goods or reality, but at something beyond them, permeating them.

ー　In Japan, he has photographed special spaces and buildings such as Kanazawa City, the State Guest House, Akasaka Palace and the National Diet Building. Are these photographs different from those of western spaces?

Tahara　For example, for the book “Glossy Form Kanazawa”, I was commissioned by the City of Kanazawa and Takakuwa Art Printing to photograph the culture and traditions of Kanazawa. When looking at them, Japanese architecture and spaces are less voluminous and flat compared to those in the West. However, his photographs capture the lacquer, gold leaf, red and Yuzen, or the airy atmosphere of a tea room, or the red light of a lantern, in a lustrous way, establishing the fertility of Japanese space and culture.

Matsuura　Mr Tahara brings in lights and candles at night to produce fertility, and transfers everydayness to theatrical objects. In this sense, His exploration of light took place in any place or environment.

‘Tatami mats and a tea ceremony furnace’ and ‘Jizo hall and light passing through a lattice’ from ‘The Shape of Gloss Kanazawa’.

ー　That's really true. By the way, when did you meet Mr Tahara ?

Matsuura　When I was in junior high school, I saw the ‘Window’ series in a photography magazine and was shocked. The ‘Window’ series was a completely new genre of photography, different from landscapes, portraits or still-life. Although they were photographs of concrete objects, they also reflected the world of abstraction and got to the root of the matter. Mr Tahara subjects are people, spaces and landscapes, but he tries to capture something that lies behind them.

ー　Is that why you became an assistant?

Matsuura　Yes, I did. I joined the Tahara office in 1989. After graduating from university, I was working as an assistant at an architectural office and a rental studio, and one day I found out in Commercial Photo that he was looking for an assistant, so I went for an interview that day and was told to come straight away.I then worked there for several years as an assistant, and even after I became independent, I helped Mr Tahara when he asked me to, until he passed away.

The exploration of light has moved from photography to sculpture, architecture and space.

ー　What kind of work did Mr Tahara do outside of photography?

Tahara　His exploration of light expanded from photography to the creation of spaces, architecture and light sculptures. In Yokohama, he created lightscapes with searchlight columns, glass sculptures and other light sculptures in a project called ‘Light Traces’. Later, he tried his hand at lightscapes in Tokyo's Hikarigaoka and Shiodome, and since 2000 has realised lightscapes in Marseille, Geneva, Paris and elsewhere. A lightscape is a city or building that uses light to create a different landscape from the daytime. Lighting-up and projection mapping have now become widespread, but Tahara's attempts were a pioneer in this field.

ー　You have also tried your hand at three-dimensional works, which could be called sculptures of light.

Tahara　In 2004, Tahara travelled to Portugal for ’Keiichi Tahara Sculpture of Light’ exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, where he procured white marble to create The Gate of Light. This was a fantastic work in which two marble columns were pierced with crystal prisms embedded with light-emitting diodes and made to glow.

The sculpture is installed in the garden of the World Headquarters building in Aoyama.

ー　What about the others?

Tahara　He printed his works such as Windows, Faces and Torsos not only on paper but also on glass, stone and cloth. For the stone material, he liked limestone from a place called Saint-Maximam in the suburbs of Paris, where the particles are fine and contain fossils, which he said is a ‘seal of time’ and ‘memory of light’. He also placed gold or silver leaf on the material and printed negatives on it, or printed on light-permeable glass, pursuing the possibilities of his work through experimentation.

Matsuura　Printing on glass and stone was impossible for him to do alone, so he summoned not only me but also his staff in Paris. We even spent a week in his studio in Hakone, burning the negatives onto a three-dimensional torso. First, an emulsion was applied to the torso and then the negative was burnt, but if it failed, the emulsion was washed off and the same process was repeated. This is a method that Mr Tahara has developed in his own unique way and cannot be done normally.

Tahara　(bringing a transparent object) This is an acrylic cube printed with nine pieces selected from the Torso series, one of Tahara's most famous works. At first, they were created as gifts for people who had helped me, but in 2020 they were commercialised as the ‘KEIICHI TAHARA RENAISSANCE COLLECTION’. We want people to enjoy Tahara's work as interior decoration.

From the KEIICHI TAHARA RENAISSANCE COLLECTION. Acrylic cubes are used as interior accessories.

ー　It can be placed on a table or shelf to put Mr Tahara's work close at hand. He has a really wide range of activities.

Tahara　He worked on creative direction and branding for brands such as Dunhill, Cartier and Moet Chardon. His job is to come up with concepts for new shops and products and realise them. When he was entrusted with Cartier's global strategy, he first had to know the company's history and craftsmanship, so he went out to the warehouse to learn and understand the essence of the brand before sublimating it into a visual image. The time I shared with Tahara, who is trusted and entrusted with work by the heads of the world's superbrands, is invaluable.
In Japan, he was entrusted with the direction of World's ‘Angel Noir‘ brand. Tahara was responsible for everything from the brand concept, shop design and merchandising to graphic work. He also worked on architecture, from architectural design to interior and logo design for the Ginza 888 Building in Ginza 8-chome, saying ‘I'm not very good at anything!’ but I enjoyed my work.

‘Angé Noir’ was a high-quality select shop under Tahara's direction, with a shop in Aoyama.

ー　By the way, how did Mr Tahara use digital?

Matsuura　Mr Tahara had been using Mac since the first generation, and after Photoshop appeared in the late 1990s, he used it freely for retouching and other tasks. Before the advent of digital, film was converted to digital data by drum scanning, but he adopted digital entirely as technology improved.

Facing the work as curator

ー　Seven years after Tahara's death, are you working on any exhibitions, publications or other projects?

Tahara　In 2018, I opened the ‘Sense of Light (Sens de Lumière )’ exhibition at the Pola Museum Annex in Ginza as Tahara's first anniversary of death exhibition. This was my first time curating. In addition to the artworks, I brought a sofa, a camera and other his personal items from our home in Hakone to the exhibition venue to make Tahara's presence felt and recreate the world view of ‘catching the light’.
In 2021, the exhibition ‘Keiichi Tahara Expressionists - Museum of White’ was organised at the same location. The exhibition space was divided into two parts by a wall, each painted black and white, with the black room displaying photographs from the ‘Faces’ series and the white room displaying portraits from the ‘White Art Museum’.
Then came the ‘OPÉRA de PARIS’ exhibition in 2024. Around 30 photographs were carefully selected from the photo book of the same name. The exhibition covered the entire wall surface with photographs and produced a video, so that viewers could experience the space and dazzling light of Garnier from the same perspective as Tahara.

From the exhibitions ‘Sense of Light’, ‘Keiichi Tahara Expressionists - Museum of White’ and ‘OPÉRA de PARIS’.　

ー　You have also held four exhibitions at the VLC Gallery in Toranomon.

Tahara　From autumn 2022 to spring 2012, four series were exhibited: ‘Window’, ‘éclat’, ‘Torso’ and ‘Hands （Les Mains)’. Thist is a work from Tahara's final years, in which the aged and matured man and the innocent and fresh baby red-head seem to be having a dialogue with each other. I organised the exhibition because I believe that these four series are symbolic of his work.

ー　I think that only Hiroko could have realised the exhibition at the Pola Museum and the VLC. Finally, what is the one thing you feel you have to keep in mind when it comes to passing on Mr Tahara's vast collection of works and archives?

Tahara　This means that Tahara will pass on everything he has done. He told me smilingly, ‘It's up to you whether you want my work to be treasured or rubbish.’ ......That's a lot of pressure for me. Inspired by Tahara, who tries many things besides photography, I now think that it doesn't matter what type of work you do, just do what you can do. Last year was the seventh anniversary of his death, and as a milestone for me, I have successfully completed my first attempt at an exhibition at the ‘OPÉRA de PARIS’, and with this interview, I also feel that I must move on to the next step.

ー　Is there anything you would like to try in the future?

Tahara　I would like to hold a retrospective exhibition that brings together all the exhibitions and projects I have done so far, and I would also like to hold an exhibition in Paris, where Tahara spent 40 years of his life. Tahara used to say that when you are working on something, you have to expand from a point to a line and then to a plane, and I would like to realise my own ideas by tracing my friends and acquaintances.

ー　Thank you very much for today.

Enquiry:

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