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| Translation from May issue (1994 P. 119) of Nippon Camera "Who's Who" by Hiromi Nakamura: assistant curator for Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of photography Japanese Photographer from Europe Satoru Yoshioka, capturing by Polaroid films. Through my job and hobby, I have opportunities to see many magazines. Usually, I do not recall a lot of images or phrases from them. My home in Tokyo is very small, so I always cut out the images from magazines, and not saving the magazine. Sometimes, I keep the magazine because it has a lot of valuable information. For example, European Photography Magazine (January 1991 issue), could be such a magazine. Eleven photographers' images have been published in the magazine as the "Young European Photographer '90." Satoru Yoshioka and Dirk Braeckman (a very important German photographer worth mentioning) are two of the eleven photographers that were selected by the internationally and professionally well known juries from Europe. Mr. Yoshioka stated "At the beginning of this century many painters made use of photography, instead of reaching for paint and brushes, they reached for a camera. As an artist and photographer I would like to go back to that time and paint by using photography. " His ambiguous images and statement make me consider his photographs as having more of an European sense, and not a Japanese one. Three years later , I unexpectedly received a letter from him. In the letter, he said that he read my article, "Berlin, Angle, Poem" which was published in Nippon Camera (November 1993). The article reminded Mr. Yoshioka of how much he missed Berlin. He had visited Berlin because of his opening reception for his show at Martin Gropius Bau Museum. At the same time of his opening, the Berlin wall had fallen. Mr. Yoshioka had an impressive début as a fine art photographer in Europe, yet, he likes San Diego as his work place. His photographs are strongly influenced by German impressionism. He uses only Polaroid P/N films. He believes that this film is easy to use and that the negative is very sharp. "I try not to manipulate images, however, sometimes it happens. I enjoy happy accidents and when I push the shutter, my job is over." This summer Mr. Yoshioka is planning to be in a group exhibition at Aperture's Borden Gallery in New York City. I am looking forward to see his exhibition in Japan. |
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