榮榮＆映里

RongRong&inri

This exhibition, Love Songs — First Light, commemorates the publication of RongRong&inri’s Personal Letters series and marks its first presentation in Japan. Personal Letters brings together the “photographic letters” exchanged by the two artists before they began working collaboratively. After meeting in 1999, RongRong&inri—each having lived through periods of solitude—began to communicate through photography, using images as a means of connection. Following inri’s first visit to Beijing in 2000, the exchange intensified. In a context where verbal communication was limited, photography itself became a form of correspondence, conveying thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. Carefully preserved for over twenty years, these photographic letters document the very beginning of their relationship. The series was exhibited in 2022 at the European Museum of Photography in Paris and in 2023 at theInternational Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. This exhibition presents Personal Letters in Japan for the first time, on the occasion of its publication.