HATAKEYAMA NAOYA / BLAST

Japanese photographer Hatakeyama Naoya has been working for a number of years on limestone quarries to capture a series of explosions. Take with a remote controlled camera set up meters from the explosions, these high speed images explore the total arrest of dynamic movement.

The "Blast" series was worked on in 1995,1996, 1998 and completed in 1999. It has been preceded by "Underground (tunnel series)" and "Underground (details series)", both collections one-earth the secret layout beneath Tokyo streets.

Although reflecting distinctive experiences, they all refer to a unique experience, with the unique character of the configuration and the movement being capture with the lens.

The material conditions of the explosion are separation, division, and detachment. Unity is preceded by multiplicity.

Because he is unable to control or foresee the composition of the final picture, Hatakeyama's photographs are powerful metaphors of modernity, technological images in which destruction and construction occur in the same instant. Here, the act of creation occurs in a simultaneous time and space as the explosion.

Valerie Portefaix
published in tofu#3