“Searching for a primitive desire, the creativity I assume photographs once held, I began to capture the sun, that is light itself, in the frame.”
—Hiroshi YamazakiIn The Sun triptych, one of the earliest works from Hiroshi Yamazaki’s (1946-2017) seminal HELIOGRAPHY series, the artist documents the course of the sun using long exposure. According to the detailed data listed at the end of his 1983 photobook HELIOGRAPHY, we know that on 4 February 1978, Yamazaki photographed the sun rising from the sea from Kujukuri Beach in Chiba Prefecture. We also know the exposure time of each photograph: 6:40 to 7:45 (65 min) for The Sun 1, 6:40 to 8:25 (105 min) for The Sun 2 and 6:40 to 9:40 (180 min) for The Sun 3. By revealing when and where the phenomenon of light occurred and how long it took to fix it on film, the Japanese photographer sought to achieve transparency of his method.
Seikyu-sha, Hiroshi Yamazaki: HELIOGRAPHY.
The series title HELIOGRAPHY is a homage to Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), a French pioneer in photography who coined this term meaning ‘sun drawing’ and harks back to the fundamentals of the medium. Turning his lens on the sun to capture light, Yamazaki rendered visible what is invisible to the naked eye. 'To look out to the sea, employing a strong filter to capture the movement of the sun in a single photograph using long exposure' was the concept behind HELIOGRAPHY. As an artist, he believed that a clearly defined concept and method gave a distinct direction to his photographic creativity, stating that ‘photography does not exist to serve a concept, rather concepts exist to serve photography.'
While his methodology is precise, the resulting photographs are diverse and beautifully nuanced within their minimalism. As the sun travels across the sky in the triptych offered here, its movement is captured as surprisingly straight, diagonal bands of light that broaden as they rise higher. Furthermore, the artist used the sea to provide not only a consistent horizon line but also a textured surface for the accumulation of reflected light. In this masterwork, Yamazaki skilfully makes the phenomenon of light visible in the sky and in the sea, reminding us of the essence of photography.
Yamazaki, whose career spanned more than 45 years, has been featured in numerous museum exhibitions, including New Japanese Avant Garde Films, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1978); Japan: A Self-Portrait, the International Center of Photography, New York (1979); and For a New World to Come, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (2015). Works from his HELIOGRAPHY series reside in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; and the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona.
Provenance
Collection of Ikkō Narahara (1931-2020) Ikkō Narahara Archives
According to Ikko’s widow Keiko Narahara, this triptych was acquired by Ikko from one of Yamazaki’s early solo exhibitions in Tokyo. A pioneer of conceptual photography in Japan, Ikko had a great influence on Yamazaki, who, at the young age of 24, participated in the 1979 exhibition Japan: A Self-Portrait at New York’s International Center of Photography on Ikko’s recommendation.
Exhibited
Japan: A Self-Portrait, International Center of Photography, New York, April - May 1979 Yamazaki Hiroshi: Between Concepts and Incidents, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 7 March - 10 May 2017
Literature
Seikyu-sha, Hiroshi Yamazaki: HELIOGRAPHY, cover (The Sun 3) and within International Center of Photography, Japan: A Self-Portrait, frontispiece Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Yamazaki Hiroshi: Concepts and Incidents, pp. 56-58
4 February 1978 Gelatin silver print triptych, printed 1979. Each Image: approx. 18.7 x 27.6 cm (7 3/8 x 10 7/8 in.) Each Sheet: approx. 24.1 x 30.3 cm (9 1/2 x 11 7/8 in.) Each signed, titled and dated in pencil on the verso.
Marking the first offering of the artist’s work at auction, this triptych, comprising rare, early exhibition prints, was acquired by the famed Japanese photographer Ikkō Narahara from one of Yamazaki’s early solo exhibitions in Tokyo. The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum hold prints of this triptych and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art holds a print of The Sun 3.