10 questions to Rinko Kawauchi about photography

11 Aug 2006 Category: Features, Photography, Worldwide

Rinko Kawauchi, one of Japan’s most popular female photographers today, created a sensation across the contemporary photography world in 2001 when she simultaneously released three critically acclaimed photography books: Utatane, Hanabi and Hanako and won the 27th Kimura Ihei Photography Award. Rinko’s publications have continued to amaze the photography world with three more books: Aila, the eyes the ears and Cuicui. She won not only the hearts of the young generation in Japan, but Rinko Kawauchi is said do be the next upcoming photographer - even in London. Being a great fan of Rinko’s work, I jumped on the opportunity to talk to her during her exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery in London

Written by Mayalina

1. Miss Kawauchi, your photos bring me into a world of quiet contemplation, your camera captures the most intricate details of every day life, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary and revealing a lyrical rhythm to our daily lives and surroundings. Before I go into your motifs and motivation,may I start by asking you what cameras you use?

My favourite camera is the Rolleiflex. The reason why I like the Rolleiflex so much is because every aspect of it, the soft quality of the lens, the feeling of it in my hand, the clicking of the shutter, feels just right. But I also use normal compact cameras as well because some things can only be taken with a compact camera. I love that moment when I feel something and press the shutter.

2. Do you insist upon a certain kind of form of printing? For example, you often print your photos in a square format, is there a reason why?

The reason why I print in a square format is because the Rolleiflex camera which I use is a 6 x 6 camera. I dislike trimming photos because I when I take pictures I am taking them through a 6 x 6 lens and therefore from a 6 x 6 point of view. But I also really like the square format as it is a world that is neither vertical nor horizontal. Not being pulled by either feels like a world to me.

3. What do you actually like about photography?

I was comfortable with it the moment I held my first camera. Also, there is a kind of positive chemistry between me and taking photos …I think I really like the idea of cutting out a moment in time…it is almost like fulfilling a hunting instinct for me. By fulfilling this need I get a feeling of satisfaction. For example, I think its similar to going shopping, the feeling of going to get something is a really comfortable task and coming home and printing the images is very similar to cooking for me. This string of tasks is very important to my daily life.

4. You do commercial photography as well as your personal artwork. Can you tell us a little about the relationship between your work in an artistic and commercial context and about how you negotiate and deal with both.

At first I had been doing lots of commercial work, but my manager Mr. Takei encouraged me to spend more time on my artistic work. But it’s difficult to choose one or the other because if someone where to ask me whether I worl better without commissioned work, that is not always the case. On the other hand, doing too much commercial work is no good either.

But for example, the work I am displaying at the Photographers Gallery now is what I worked on whilst I worked on commissions and when I look back on myself, I am really glad that I was able to take so much work side by side with my commercial work. If I were given lots of time to concentrate just on my artistic works, I don’t know if I could do it. So for me it is best when I balance out the job of being a commercial photographer and an artistic photographer.

5 . I realized, that you take photos with your mobile phone, too for your online Rinko Diary you write! I find it extremely interesting to see a professional photographer taking photos on a mobile phone and presenting them to the public. Can you tell me a bit more about those photos and why you started the diary?

I thought taking photos with my mobile phone every day would be quite interesting, It’s a mobile phone camera and I am writing a diary, so I tried not to make it too artistic.

Why I started it is because I really wanted to do something daily. Even more, I wanted it to be presented to others because doing something privately doesn’t ever last long, and going round in circles brings you back to the same place. I also thought that presenting it on the interenet would make it feel live.

I also think it a really positive activity form me as it is in a sense therapeutic and helps me maintain my mental health.

6. And I heard that you are taking this diary further by publishing a book based on it! This also brings me to my next question: you have a prolific publishing career with 6 major beautiful titles and you tend to present a lot of your photography in book format. What exactly triggered your bookmaking career? Was it inspired by any special encounters?

My first photography book was published by Mr. Takei when he was still at Little More (He is now the president of Foil. Normally, publishing three books at once, especially photography books is completely unheard of, but he just did it and that was the begining.

Books have always been like a friend to me from a very early age and when I spoke of my future dream in high school I said that, although I didn’t know exactly what kind of book it would be, I would publish a book in my own name one day.

7. What exactly do you like about the book format?

Movies and television offer you a form of time which is in a sense imposed upon you and which you can’t really move away from or control. But with books, you can take them around and look at any part of them at your own pace. This is why, I cant stand reading the same book with someone else. For example, I used to love the Shonen Jump Magazine when I was in elementary school and I hated it when my brother would try to read the comics while I did. I would say, “Stop interefering with my relationship with Dragonball!” (ha ha ha) I didn’t want anyone to interfere with the intimate world created between me and whatever I was reading. Books are such a big part of my life, they have helped me through a lot, and that is why I am so happy to be able to have a job where I can make books

8. Your books are collections of images often put together based on visual association and I find that these visual associations create space for engagement, curiosity, contemplation and imagination. How do you decide upon the composition of your books? How do you make your books flow so beautifully?

When I put together a book, I actually I have a conversation with myself. To be more specific, I begin by printing simply everything that I have recently taken and which interest me for what ever reason. And then I spread everything on my floor at home and start by taking an image in my hand. I then choose the next image, as if I were playing an image association game. I have moments where I say to myself, “I don’t know why but only this image can be next to this one”, or “this is a bit too well-coupled”. It’s almost like having some kind of discovery. In fact, photography is a succession of discoveries. When you take the photo you have a discovery. Then when you print you have another discovery. It is as if I am pressing the shutter a second time, because I notice things, I wasn’t aware before.

9. How did you cultivate your photographic/artistic sensibility?

People often say that I have a child’s eye. For example, I stare at ants gathering around sugar, or when I seek shelter from the rain, I gaze upon snails. These are things which you often do when you are a child aren’t they? I have a very similar sensibility to that.

I prefer listening to the small voices in our world, those which whisper. I have a feeling I am always being saved by these whispers, my eyes naturally focus on small things. Even when I walk around Shibuya, I find myself running towards a little batch of flowers. I find comfort in them. I think this is a very normal sensitivity, on the contrary to what people may think, I think its sound. But of course the world we live in is not only made up of grass growing by the road, it is composed by lots and lots of other elemets and so I do also take pictures of many other things. Just taking flowers is not interesting. I experience the world with a feeling of equilibrium and I think it shows in my works.

10. Finally, can you tell us about your next project? I heard you are working on an exhibition in Brazil?

I am holding an exhibition at a museum in San Paulo next year and I visited Brazil in February to take photos for the exhibition. The owner of a Contemporary Art Museum in Brazil suggested that I took pictures of Japanese immigrants in a study of the history of Japanese immigrantion. I am thinking of going back again in the summer and making a book out of the idea.

I really look forward to that!

I think many aspiring photographers will be surprised to hear that Rinko majored in Graphic Design at University. Her career as a photographer was inspired by the photography classes she deicided to take once a week. Her determination to pursue what she felt was right! To create an immense archive of work is both amazing and encouraging. Besides being a very young incredible photographer, she is a wonderful person to meet.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.

19 Comments

1. thanks Kawauchi. :D

   Posted by: x-noise on August 12th, 2006 at 2:42 am

2. Go on, let’s digitize the whole world. We are just a steps away…

   Posted by: dH on August 12th, 2006 at 2:47 am

3. Sugoi yo! Kawauchi san ojoozu shashinka desu ne!!

   A person totally in touch with the world around her and with skill and heart to show it to the rest of us. Truly inspiring. I’m going to my local bookshop today to buy some of her books.

   Posted by: Frank on August 12th, 2006 at 12:55 pm

4. Never heard (seen) of square photos before.
   Looks great!
   Rinko’s works are really awesome. If I weren’t several thousand kilometers from London I’d definitely visit the exposition.

   Posted by: GK on August 12th, 2006 at 8:00 pm

5. @GK
   the exhibition is already over, but she will have an exhibition in Milan soon - several thousands kilomters from you as well :-)

   Ferdinand
   http://www.japan-photo.info

   Posted by: Ferdinand on August 12th, 2006 at 9:27 pm

6. What a nice interview.

   Posted by: scr on August 13th, 2006 at 2:49 am

7. [...] Kawauchi about photography (tags: photography japan interview) Tags: -makzhou no comments trackback this article comment on thisarticle [...]

   Posted by: Human-Error Processor on August 13th, 2006 at 1:18 pm

8. The books are so wonderful.. Especially the watermelon!

   Posted by: ヤーッコ on August 19th, 2006 at 1:25 am

9. I am so inspired by Rinko. I don’t know her, but I feel like I’ve had so many intimate conversations with her because of her photographs. I feel like she’s showing her soul through her photos. She’s amazing, I’ve started to see life in a different way through her pictures…thanks Rinko!

   Posted by: Amanda james on October 24th, 2006 at 10:17 am

10. [...] Esse é o mote da Pingmag, uma revista japonesa online que é o site de design mais referenciado na internet. Toda vez que passo por lá é uma agradável surpresa. Hoje por exemplo, o destaque do dia é sobre os designs das camisas do jockeys. Já vi também um artigo interessante sobre um dos autores que havia se perdido em Tokyo com sua câmera digital e fez um belo estudo sobre a tipografia - ou ideografia? - dos letreiros das lavanderias do bairro.Há também entrevistas interessantes como a da fotógrafa japonesa Rinko Kauwachi que - aparentemente - está causando frisson na europa com o lançamento de um livro. Ela sai-se com a sensacional tirada de que gosta de fotografar com a Rolleiflex por causa de seu formato quadrado (6×6) que a exime de se preocupar se está fotografando um retrato ou uma paisagem. [...]

    Posted by: fabrica 021 » Blog Archive » Design e “how to make things” on October 25th, 2006 at 3:31 am

11. [...] Rinko Kawauchi é uma fotógrafa japonesa que me impressionou quando li uma entrevista sua na Ping Mag, que já citei aqui em outra oportunidade. [...]

    Posted by: O Sofá Verde » Retrato ou paisagem? on October 25th, 2006 at 3:43 am

12. rinko, thank you to give me a tender regard about japan. vincent
    ;)

    Posted by: vincent on November 8th, 2006 at 1:52 am

13. [...] 3 articles en forme d’entretiens à noter sur pingmag. Le photographe Joe Nishizawa en exploration des sous-terrains de Tokyo et centrales nucléaires high-techs. Dans un style tout à fait opposé, la photographe Rinko Kawauchi nous présentent ses couleurs quotidiennes à travers 10 questions. Finalement, pingmag nous présente un peu plus Pallalink.net (aka Kazuhiko Kawahara), un site que je suis depuis longtemps pour ses formidables symetries tournantes-superposées-compliquées à base de photographies urbaines. (les 3 photos de l’assemblage hétéroclite ci-dessus sont dans l’ordre Joe Nishizawa, de Rinko Kawauchi et de Kazuhiko Kawahara) [...]

    Posted by: Made In Tokyo » Photos et Musiques on December 27th, 2006 at 12:54 am

14. looking forward to your exhibition here in brasil! the museum’s website where rinko’s work will be shown in july 2007 is http://www.mam.org.br and it’s the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (modern art museum). we’re all very excited to see this young and upcoming, although already established, artist! thank you!

    Posted by: julie from brasil on June 25th, 2007 at 9:59 pm

15. [...] interviews with Kawauchi here and [...]

    Posted by: alec soth - blog » Blog Archive » Baby Eyes on July 25th, 2007 at 5:00 pm

16. nice interview.I’ve seen the show in Photographer’s Gallery in London, I love the pictures but I found the way they were mounted slighly disturbing.The prints sealed in plexi glass felt a bit too much like commercial photography display, I
    though if the prints were simply pinned on the wall it will suit them better. There was also slide show in the second half of the gallery turned into a screening room, photographs from “Cui Cui” (i think) with some ambient music-it was great! It was similar to the flow on the images in the book, I came to the gallery several times just see it again..

    Posted by: jan on July 27th, 2007 at 10:43 pm

17. [...] are some interviews with her over here and here. Images from her book Aila can be found here. Japan-Photo.info also wrote an excellent [...]

    Posted by: Asian Photography Blog » Blog Archive » Rinko Kawauchi on October 10th, 2007 at 12:43 am

18. [...] [Spring Obsessions Edition] 1. Photo: Rinko Kawauchi [interview, here] 2. Place: Dunbar Hollow 3. Shoe: Tom’s in gold. 4. Eating: Pulled pork and raspberry jam [...]

    Posted by: » Blog Archive » Eagerly Awaiting my Economic Stimulus Package on April 10th, 2008 at 12:19 am

19. [...] Kawauchi arbeitet in Serien, die in der Form von offenen Erzählungen, Poesie und Emotion mit der Darstellung von Vergänglichkeit und gelegentlicher Melancholie verbinden. Ein Interview mit Rinko Kawauchi gibt es im PingMag Magazin. [...]

    Posted by: Rinko Kawauchi | THE SONIC BLOG on November 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

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