The late photographer William Corey devoted over three decades of his life to photographing the gardens of Kyoto, or what he referred to as "the good that mankind was capable of --those successful integrations of man and his environment."
The photographer who approaches these gardens is faced with the very formidable task of trying to use one art form to do justice to another. If the photographer is successful, he or she must somehow convey the truth of the first medium in terms that are true to the second. This was the task that William Corey so admirably undertook in his monumental study of the gardens of Japan.
To achieve this, William might spend days looking at a garden before even bringing his equipment. He mostly used the panoramic, large-format 8x20 inch banquet camera. Although challenging to use, its extremely large negative size (100 times the size of a 35mm negative) allows much more information to be captured on film--details are accentuated, the tonal scale enriched and extended, the sense of reality enhanced. William describes his aim below:
"The customary manner of photographing the gardens has been to 'document' them, the primary purpose being descriptive, educational, and picturesque. Japanese gardens are far from a common subject in the realm of fine art photography. They elude our customary notion of what a garden is, and the intentions behind them are not easily read, particularly by those outside the culture. By inclination and training, my approach to garden photography is different--more personal and interpretive--a matter of detailed perceiving that, like the gardens themselves, requires reverence, respect, and time. My aim has been to go beyond description."
William's goal was always to "extend the traditional boundaries of color landscape photography and through the essence of this beauty enhance the mutual understanding between Japan and the West." William made over 500 large-format color negatives during his lifetime, yet his work is little known in Japan. This is his first solo exhibition in Kyoto.
Place
Shogin Lobby, Ground floor of Kunjyukan Map
* Admission is Free
Period
September 1st (Wed.) - 28th (Tue.) 2021
Opening hour
10：00〜17：00
Artists
William Corey (1949-2008)
William Corey devoted his life to photographing the gardens of Japan in color with large-format view cameras. He was born in New Jersey, but worked out of Boulder, Colorado, from 1974.
In 1994, he was commissioned by the state of Colorado to take a picture of Rocky Mountain National Park, and it was presented as the official gift from Colorado to then Emperor and Empress of Japan upon the occasion of their official visit to the State. He was also invited to be a guest instructor and artist-in-residence at the Tohoku University of Art & Design in Yamagata Prefecture (Sister State of Colorado) in 1995. Later in 1998, he held an exhibition of this work at the Yamagata Prefectural Museum Bunshokan. In 1996, William received a grant from the Japan Foundation and was one of the few foreign artists allowed to take photos of the imperial gardens in Kyoto.
Since his unfortunate passing due to cancer in 2008, William's artworks have been loved and valued. Exhibitions of his large prints (up to 2.5~3 meters long) have been held at the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver International Airport, and Dyke Castle and Evenburg Castle in Germany. William held numerous exhibitions and lectures in various cities.
In 2020, William's entire collection of photographs, including his cameras, negatives, equipment, and handmade books, was permanently archived at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Boston (Sister City of Kyoto) for education, research, display and the enjoyment of future generations.
www.williamcorey.com