岩橋優花

Iwahashi Yuka

The present work is composed of images generated by two practices related to the absence of the Other. The first is a series of portraits that began several years ago as a result of the pandemic. I started projecting portraits of people close to me, such as my family and friends, onto a space using a projector and re-photographing them with a film camera. I then made prints in the darkroom, sometimes using photograms. Through this complex process of layering my own memories and eyes, I sought the presence of my family and friends, whom I could not meet at the time. The second is a series of photographs of my family and their places, inspired by the pass away of my grandmother a few years ago. I suddenly felt the presence of my passed grandmother close to me at times. For example, my father gazing into the distance, the landscape of the garden in my hometown where I was born, the trees my grandmother planted, and the way my grandfather gazed at me. I think that even though people have passed away and become invisible, we can still suddenly feel their presence through everything we can see. Through the images created from the two practices, I am able to trace the presence and memories of the invisible.