Contemplations

Takeshi Shikama, born in Tokyo in 1948, became a photographer in 2002. The forest and nature are at this time the subjects of his photographic research. In the forest he loses himself with a camera to try to capture its essence, he deploys his technical mastery of the visual language, and in his quest to fix time he tries to make visible the invisible secrets of the plant world. He favors the optical camera to record as many details as possible of a leaf, an undergrowth or a valley. His exposure time is long, as if he were tuning his breathing to that of the wind, of the elements. We can guess the rustle of the leaves, the quivering of the water. His compositions are like visual haikus. Each photograph is constructed like a short poem, a sentence, which captures the artist’s emotion in front of a place, a tree, a flower.

In 2011, Takeshi Shikama left for the United States. As a self-taught artist, without being aware of following in the footsteps of Carleton Watkins or Ansel Adams, he immortalizes the majesty of Yosemite Park by bringing his own vision and technique. On the Pacific Northwest coast, he documents both the abundance of vegetation and the stigma of deforestation. He gives as much importance to the details of the shooting as to the photographic object: the print. He makes his prints using the platinum/palladium technique. He applies the emulsion himself, by hand, on each sheet. He adjusts the exposure time, reveals the image, fixes it, and dries the print. This long and meticulous process requires a level of attention that reflects the artist’s patience and intimacy with his work.