The Life of Light

 

By Anthony Tao

 

 

The quantum physics principle of wave-particle duality allows light to be both a wave and a particle at the same time. In the hands of photographer Tokihiro Sato, however, it is unclear whether light is either. Here it verges on something else altogether, stranger and more wonderful.

 

In “Respiration,” Sato deftly manipulates light to create prints that are occult without being mystifying, ghostly though safe, dazzling yet understated.

 

In one photo, filigrees of light cling to a Caterpillar bulldozer like moss on logs. In another, they stand erect on a staircase, hundreds of them with tiny buttonhooks for heads as if kibitzing at a cocktail party. Amid backdrops that are barren and inanimate—a bridge, a building, a concrete culvert—Sato’s light is bright and expressive.

 

But merely saying Sato’s light has spirit or sentience doesn’t give the creative process due credit. With a large camera strapped to a tripod, the artist works by aiming a pencil torch or flashlight at the lens and exposing for up to three hours. The artist, wearing black and constantly in motion, never appears in the final product. Sato also employs a mirror, tracing air and measuring space. It’s a long and monotonous process, requiring the patience of a former sculptor (which Sato is).

 

A Sato photo of empty elevator shafts, foreboding basements, mist-covered seas and ghosts (sometimes people linger a bit too long in Sato’s shots and appear as diaphanous outlines) is neither morbid nor sad. It is a credit to the artist’s immaculate technical ability that you see a wraith and think it lovely company, capable of being uplifted into another dimension where nothing—not even light—is constant.

 

 

 

 

Source: www.cityweekend.com.cn  October  1-21 page17