(Please also see accompanying text with images.)
This submission, extracts from the series, 'flow... ' (Kyoto 2009) is one of several inter-related projects I have undertaken in Japan.
Elements of my Japanese output are 'serial' in nature and reflect my on-going interest in Eastern philosophical notions of nonduality / oneness. In this respect, as well as exploring contemporary Japanese culture and the nature of relationships, ‘flow... ' in its seriality, seeks to allude to something 'changing' yet 'never-changing'. The couples consistently occupy the central part of the images and are depicted typologically against the 'constant' backdrop of the flowing river.
The term 'flow' can equally be applied to the manner in which the couples 'regenerate' throughout the series - making way for their counterparts of various types, as the series proceeds. To reiterate, the intention here is to hint at something which, despite appearances, somehow essentially remains the same. In its sensibility, the project is allied to other serial photographic work I have made in Japan employing typological / serial strategies to convey meaning.
In undertaking the project I enjoyed the challenge of making photographic work that is documentary in its sensibility (indeed, 'flow...' is tangentially inspired by one of my favourite, life affirming Cartier Bresson photographs of friends picnicking by a river - ‘Sunday on the Banks of the River Seine’ (1938), yet operates at the interface between contemporary visual arts practice and Eastern philosophy.
