Harper’s and Flying Books, Tokyo, are excited to announce an exhibition of new work by Daisuke Yokota, on view from September 26 through December 1 in East Hampton. The show will open with a public reception for the artist on Saturday, September 26, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. Additionally, we are pleased to release Daisuke Yokota: Color Photographs, a new publication dedicated to the artist's exploration of color photography.
Color Photographs marks Daisuke Yokota’s first exhibition in the United States. Celebrated internationally for his interdisciplinary and energetic approach to art and bookmaking, this show will focus on the artist's experiments with color photography. With this series, as Yokota explains, he “tried not to take pictures,” and instead sought to “draw out the physical aspect of film.” Yokota layered sheets of unused large format color film and applied unorthodox developing methods before scanning the results. Here, documentation is replaced with darkroom alchemy in order to show that the essence of photography rests not necessarily with the camera, but in film itself.
Within the legacy of the Provoke school, Yokota is working to redefine the role of image-making in the post-photography age. If his predecessors sought to destroy photography, Yokota has left the camera entirely behind. This practice upends the assumption that photography only records images from the world, and instead accentuates the physical particularities of an evolving medium. Yokota’s focus on the materiality of film has produced a series of abstract images, seemingly transparent and liquescent in form. Taken together, Yokota’s ecstatic colors and unexpected shapes establish a new language for color photography.
Daisuke Yokota was born in Saitama, Japan, and currently lives and works in Tokyo. In addition to multiple international group exhibitions, Yokota’s work has been featured at the Foam Photography Museum, Amsterdam, the Rencontres d’Arles and Paris Photo, France. Yokota is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the John Kobal Residency Award at Photo London 2015, the Excellence Award at Canon New Cosmos of Photography 2008, the Epson Color Imaging Contest Award 2008, and the Grand Prize at 1_WALL 2010. In 2014, his book Vertigo was nominated for the Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards. Yokota is represented by G/P Gallery, Tokyo.
Daisuke Yokota: Color Photographs is published by Harper’s Books and Flying Books in an edition of 750. Within the edition, five sets of 150 copies bear different color foil stamps.
For further information, including an exhibition price list, or to order copies of the book, please contact the gallery at (631) 324-1131 or mail@harpersbooks.com.