In the book, there are few moments of respite with an empty page featuring either an asterisk or text from the photographer himself. The former signifies if nothing else…nothingness, while the latter serves an effect similar to the Stephen Shore’s The Nature of Photographs not only in terms of language but as a primer.
Read MoreA single photograph contains various powers – the beauty of light, the presence of objects and the people, and expressions from shadows. It never points in a single direction. It has distinctive and multiple vectors. We breathe in the places where these vectors come and go.
This is the free space where our mind can swim.
Read MoreHANON (2016), Mizutani’s latest publication, delivers this darker side of Japan in graphic style. The book features a series of stark B&W images of great cormorants in flocks or perched solely amongst the maze of power lines that dominate the Tokyo skyline. These silhouettes are precariously edited throughout the book and resemble a musical score. This has not gone unnoticed by Mizutani (or publisher IMA) as the title HANON is a reference to the French piano instruction book titled Hanon Complete: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises for the Piano by Charles-Louis Hanon.
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