SATOH Tokihiro
SATOH Tokihiro 佐藤 時啓 (1957- ) Sakata, Yamagata Pref. Fine-art photographer of landscapes and cityscapes.
Major themes Photo respiration series showing landscapes, cityscapes, and ocean scenes with lines or dots of light drawn by him with a flashlight or sun-reflecting mirror.
Education Graduated Tokyo National Univ. of Fine Arts and Music in 1981, majoring in sculpture. Earned M.F.A. from the same university in 1983.
Career Sato got into photography rather late, in 1987 at age 30. His roots are in steel sculpture which he studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (nicknamed "Geidai" in Japanese). While a graduate student, he needed to photograph his sculpture. He then learned how to use a large-format camera for this purpose. As he photographed his sculpture, he realized that his pieces were unrelated to society and had an isolated existence. At the same time, he felt joy in taking pictures around town. Then he thought, why not try and link photography with his sculpture?
For his photo respiration series, he photographs various landscapes such as the ocean, city streets, architecture, and open fields complemented with dots of light or doodling lines of light or wavy vertical lines of light.
He uses a large-format, 8x10 camera set on a sturdy tripod and sets a long exposure time (sometimes as long as 3 hours total). Then he goes into the scene within the camera's field of view and starts drawing with light. In daylight, he uses a hand-held mirror to reflect sunlight at the camera from various locations within the same scene. A reflective triangular frame is mounted around the camera lens so he can see whether the light is being accurately reflected at the camera. He counts to 10 each time he is reflecting the light to the camera. Then he moves (or swims) to the next spot. The result is dots of light scattered here and there in the photograph.
At night or inside a building, he uses a small flashlight to doodle with light. The dark ground or object is thereby covered with tangled lines of light. Sometimes, he draws wavy vertical lines of even length above stairs and other surfaces.
Awards Received Mercedes Benz grant in 1993 for Artist Residency in France. Received a grant in 1994 from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs for Artist Residency in the United Kingdom.
Book reviews Photo-Respiration
Sample photos http://photoarts.com/gallery/SATO/satoexh.html
Web site: http://www14.atwiki.jp/tokihirosato/