- - - Miho

During his time in Europe, KISHIKAWA first encountered "The Norse Azure" in Sweden. Since then, he has been fascinated by its simple, yet powerful beauty.
His photographs of poetic scenery may remind you of traditional Japanese ink painting. The images characterise Japanese aesthetics that looks not only for the outward earthly beauty of actual objects, but also more importantly for what lies hidden behind it.
From this aspect, KISHIKAWA has succeeded in creating a unique blend of European beauty with Japanese sensitivity towards nature.

With KISHIKAWA's touch, some kind of scenery reflects differently.
This series of his recent works shows you the exquisite photographs of sand dunes he took in New Mexico, U.S.A, in 1993. What is so unique about his photographs is the smooth texture he creates.
These photographs in no way give you dryness, roughness, heat and thirsty of which you would be given an impression from others of the same kind. Instead they make you feel as if you were slowly sailing through a calm ocean, listening to the peaceful sound of water-flowing and enjoying the comfortable sea breeze. Bon voyage!

KISHIKAWA has been seeking to capture rather elusive image AURORA in Scandinavia. "Most of the time, I just ended up sitting outside shivering for hours in vain. But, last time I went there, it appeared all of a sudden. I was very lucky to see the whole sky being veiled so mysteriously," said he.
As shown below, these photographs are incredibly beautiful, but there are something else that makes his work so special. It is the richness of impermanent beauty in aurora that he succeeded in expressing through his sensitive yet dynamic approach.

KISHIKAWA published a photographical book in 1993 named "Mori no hito" in Japanese which literally means "Man of Forest", needless to say, is orang-utan.
The fashion photographer first visited Borneo in 1992 to explore into the deep forest, being sucked by disgusting leeches. Gradually he got interested in orang-utans' faces in particular because their faces are all different just like human beings and each face talks all about each one's life. His unpublished photos are exhibited here.
And "Extra" contains photos of Iban, Sea Dayak of Borneo, which KISHIKAWA met in the forest.

It seems that the 70's revival has been in worldwide fashion nowadays. All these photographs presented below were taken in Paris during the early 1970's. Thorough KISHIKAWA's Japanese perspective, different faces of Paris are vividly expressed.
Look at the children wearing a trendy costume, the young lady dreaming to be an actress and the old couples resting on the bridge, Pont Neuf. Each image surely conveys the mood of that intriguing period.

Children can be always photogenic and the perfect subject. It is not only just that children are affectionate and amusing, but that they are honest about how they are feeling at any given moment.
When KISHIKAWA pointed his camera to the children, he knew what they would do, and that would be what he hoped to capture. Needles to say, those" Petite Parisians" showed him the real happiness in the 1970's.

Of all the subjects that have attracted photographers, only a few have focused exclusively on legs of women walking in the street.
KISHIKAWA is absolutely one of the few and made them not only glamorous but also humorous.
"I think I was young enough to get up my nerve to kneel down in the middle of the street and take a quick shot of them," he said, "but their legs were so 70's, and I couldn't take my eyes off them. The legs really talk, don't they?"

As time goes on, Paris, like every other cosmopolitan cities, has been changing the scenes of the streets and the faces of the people.
In the 1970's when KISHIKAWA spent his late twenties, even a small corner of a street in Paris had some kind of story to tell, by which he was very much attracted to the city.
And, he already realized that the Paris he loved would be disappearing quickly and wanted to keep the city as it was.
Certainly, he was able to manage to capture on film the essence of each story which gives us delightful imagination.

In 1987, Tango Argentina first came to Japan and instantly caught on, creating so many improvised Tango fans who started learning how to dance Tango by themselves. It seemed their enthusiasm for Tango would cool down soon like other in-things, but unexpectedly its popularity stayed on. Subsequently Tango Argentina decided to come and hold their second show in Japan in 1989, and KISHIKAWA flew to Washington D.C. to shoot their show for the promotion.
Most photos of the show were printed in a magazine, but he also took quite a few just for himself from an angle of a fashion photographer. These photos make the first public appearance here.