An act of reproduction
For me, photography is not the endeavor to create a two-dimensional work of art, but by taking photo after photo, I come closer to truth and reality at the very intersection of the fragmentary nature of the world and my own personal sense of time. - Daido Moriyama
Photography means also awareness of its nature of an act of reproduction.
If we accept the fact that photography is not reality but rather a reproduction of reality then we understand how each image produced by a camera becomes unique and offers a fragment of something captured in that particular moment. Even the sampling of other people's images can become a new photographic act.
Daido Moriyama, with his participation in the seminal publishing project PROVOKE showed pictures of accidents that he had photographed on the pages of police reports. From photographing them with flash and using black and white emulsions those photos of photos became his photos.
In 2014 with my Ricoh I was interested in collecting fragments. I did it on the street, I did it everywhere. I used to do that at home. Details of billboards became an opportunity to offer a rereading of what I had in front of me. In a suspended and mysterious time, influenced by the dream world, I photographed things that for me became subjects of memory worthy of being re-defined in new fragments.
KID is one of those images. And you can consider it a preview of the second volume of THE RICOH FILES, which I will soon publish. In the meantime you can purchase the first one:
My history with Ricoh
In 2013 in the midst of my engagement with Leica I received a Ricoh GRD IV. Which turned out tobe a great little joy that arrived in a perfect period of my visual research.
At that time I had been fascinated by Daido Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Araki and more generally by Japanese photography. I've never been a photographer of the kind who has to work with a big camera or who considers a pro camera to work. I have always embraced both in photography and in life the philosophy of less is more and the compact cameras were already part of my primary equipment both in digital and film. The Leica X2 itself is a compact. And i worked in the past with other point & shoots.
The degree of freedom that a camera like the Ricoh grants you is somewhat unique. If you see it you wouldn't give it any credit: it's all black, with no such flashy brands, a minimalist design to the point that it looks like an old compact camera. It is a camera not suitable for those who pose as a photographer: naturally without a viewfinder, with a fixed 28mm...
My Ricoh GRD IV is belonging to the legendary first generation of digital Ricohs that have picked up the baton of the film point & shoot of the same brand. And there were first edition possessors who ensure that the black and white was even more unique with a fantastic filmy effect. With a 10mpx small sensor and a lens f1.9 ricoh GRD IV was something unique in 2013. At least to me. A camera that really you always have with you.
Between 2013 and 2014 I also launched Mexicana, an erotic photography editorial project. Despite my primary camera was the Leica, with Ricoh always with me I registred a lot of scenes of my daily life and I used it also with the girls posing for me. Ricoh has been the camera for my work in the barrios here in Mexico. And I used it as a as a kind of visual notebook, allowing me to document my everyday.
When in Turin for a workshop I could test for a day also the Ricoh GR, a prototype of the first version with the aps-c sensor that started the series of cameras that is now respected and used by many street photographers.
This book is divided in 2 volumes, each featuring 85 photos, taken between 2013 and 2015.
I currently no longer own any Ricoh, but am in the process of returning to purchase one. Consider this editorial effort an act of love for a camera that I consider to be the only one that forces you to think differently. I am pretty sure that any Ricoh photographer knows what I mean.
THE RICOH FILES VOL1
Product:Glossy Magazine Amount of pages:86 pages Size:20 x 25.4 cm Color:Full Color Quantity:1 x Price:€ 39.00
