"Monochrome Digital Bodyscapes"
Exhibition by MIro Ito at Canon Salon, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, 2003
My New Challenge: Revisiting the "Goldern Age" of B/W Fine Art Photography
Experience with the senses and a cultivated ability as a photographer in techniques and composition to condense specific values from the real world -- moment by moment -- into a photo "micro cosmos" can play a key role in digital imaging for the future, as the photographer can incorporate the high quality of images themselves based on photography.
I consider it to be the responsibilty of us photographers living at the turn of the century to serve as an elegant bridge between the analog and the digital. Digital technology, as "painting with pixels", is gradually becoming the extension of the camera for professional photographers and visual artists alike.
However, what is essential is that the photograph as the source image must have a confident quality of expression. Easily fabricated digital "creations" are (and will remain) lacking in the "heart-motivated" experience of the art creators themselves. The fundamental ability of expression in the respective medium and field in art and design is an indespensable prerequisite.
It is now the time for photographers to face the challenge of how to find their respective niche with regard to digital photography while preserving analog photography's quality of content.
Digital Imaging Improvement for an "Unplugged" Stage
Since my encounter with Canon 1DS, in December, Tokyo, I came to realize that the 1DS equipment can open a completely new horizon for me to create my images under the motto "analog touch with digital tech" that I have been engaged in since 1996 !
The camera is handy, very intelligent, agile and technically so sound that the fine quality of the outcome is equivalent to photography in the medium-format.
As a result, I resumed my B/W fine art photography with which I launched my career in Germany and Japan in the late 80's. Exactly what I am seeking to do is to materialize a B/W fine art photography world through 1DS, which I envision as the theme of my next exhibition at the Canon Salon in Japan.
I have come to realize that only present-day photographers since the turn of the last century are able to ensure that particular quality which has been cultivated through "conventional" silver halide photography.
Essential is that the photograph and/or graphic design, as the basic image, must have a confident quality of expression.
Therefore, I would like to revisit the goldern quality of B/W fine art photography ---through Canon's digital equipment and BJ-printer -- but without any manipulation by computer !
Incidentally, my favorite lense is the 100mm Macro EF.
Miro Ito
