In linear time, people simply leave events far behind. We believe in its linearity because we perceive an active aspect of growth as well as the negative aspect og aging. Gladly we do away with the follies of infancy yet are sad to slowly lose our hand-won gains. Until ultimately death awaits to command us to discard all we had garnered in life – a fitting negation to our possibility at the moment of birth.

Hirano Keiichiro (from KYOTOGRAPHIE 2016 Catalog)

PLANKTON: A Drifting World at the Origin of Life
supported by BMW
Christian Sardet: images
Shiro Takatani: installation | Ryuichi Sakamoto: sound
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art Annex (2F)

Christian Sardet from France, captures the beauty and diversity of live planktonic organisms using macro and micro-photography including new images taken with the Macronauts last fall in Shimoda, Japan. Shiro Takatani, one of the best known visual artists in Japan, created the video installation for plankton in collab-oration with Christian Sardet. The sound is created by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

YKSI: Mouth of the River,
Snake in the Water, Bones of the Earth
Arno Raphael Minkkinen
Ryosokuin

Arno Rafael Minkkinen photographs the beauty of nature: Forests. Lakes. His own naked body. The title, “YKSI,” means the number “One” in Finnish. Minkkinenʼs work is internationally renowned for his original style, but this is his first exhibition in Japan. This group of images spans nearly three decades of photographs taken all over the world. It also includes new works photographed in Kyoto for KYOTOGRAPHIE.

A Circle is the ultimate system, the perfect emblem. Tracing the birth, life and death of all natureʼs creations. Everything connects, intersecting, expanding, creating powerful patterns, showing us the fragility and beauty
of our existence.

Through these exhibitions we invite everyone to imagine their own role in this great
“Circle of Life.”

2016
Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi
KYOTOGRAPHIE Co-founders / Co-direcotrs

“Nostalgia is surfacing around the world. Many who live in the urban culture of the 21st century are acting on the desire to return to a culture of reciprocity on which tribal societies were once composed. More and more people are fed up with money—the controller of people’s fates and nation states—now seeping into the domain of art. “

Ryuichi Sakamoto
New York, March 17th, 2015

KYOTOGRAPHIE understands the modern TRIBE as a group of people not only bound by he-reditary connection based on place and blood, but also by individual will and systems of value that transcend race and national boundaries. Our desire in 2015 was to display the diverse nature of human relations through the medium of photography.

Francis Wolff, BLUE TRAIN (Album of John Coltrane) , 1577 / © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images

1.Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts, Photographic Collections
Last Samurais, First Photographs TORAYA Kyoto Gallery

2.Lucas Foglia
A Natural Order
Yuuhisai Koudoukan

3.
Martin Gusinde
The Spirit of the Tierra del Fuego people, Sel’knam, Yamana, Kawésqar
Temporary paper pavillon by Shigeru Ban Kyoto City Hall open square

4. Roger Ballen
Roger Ballen’s Shadowland 1969–2014
COMME des GARÇONS Kyoto (a)
Horikawa Oike Gallery (b)

5. Francis Wolff
A Vision of Jazz: Francis Wolff and Blue Note Records
SHIMADAI GALLERY KYOTO

6. Suntag Noh
reallyGood, murder
Gallery SUGATA

7.Marc Riboud
「Alaska」 presented by CHANEL NEXUS HALL
Kondaya Genbei Kurogura

8.Yusuke Yamatani
Tsugi no yoru e
Mumeisha

9.Kimiko Yoshida
All that’s not me
Noguchi Residence, Karaku-an

10.RongRong & inri
Tsumari Story
Ryosokuin (Kenninji temple)

11.Oliver Sieber
Imaginary Club
ASPHODEL

12.Fosco Maraini
The Enchantment of the Women of the Sea
by “Museo delle Culture” of Lugano
Traditional building in Gion Shinbashi

13.Louis Jammes
Tchernobyl
SferaExhibition

14.Baudouin Mouanda
The Sapeurs of Bacongo Murakamijyu Building B1

Roger Ballen, Mimicry, 2005 / © Roger Ballen

The photographs displayed showed different shades and contours of modern tribes—from groups of people connected through Indigenous culture to those brought together by mediums of communication such as the Internet.
We hoped this new perspective we call TRIBE would allow us to see our place amidst the chaos of the era of information and help us acknowledge the tribes of others. If we can create a world in which the beauty and preciousness of anyone first enters our field of view, perhaps war and discrimination will slowly fade away.

From 2014, we incorporated the theme “Our Environments”, under this theme we welcomed 13 exhibitions in a 15 extraordinary locations. In Hosodono, Shimogamo Shrine we exhibited Taishi Hirokawa’s photography of nuclear power plants on the Japanese coastline. In Kondaya’s kura (Japanese traditional stock room) we presented Stanley Greene’s documentary photos of war and global warming, this exhibition opened up the often overlooked and hidden realities the world and its people face.

At our main site, The Museum of Kyoto, we explored the meaning of the image and the future of photography through the MARS exhibition, this exhibition composed of prints and high tech video installation showing mind blowing images from the surface of Mars captured by a HiRISE camera on the NASA shuttle observation probe. The collaborative video piece transformed the image into a journey on one of the worlds largest 4K LED screens, measuring a massive 6m x 4.4m.

“The issues facing our planet and the human race are in dire need of true acknowledgement and understanding. We cannot be compliant in our lives. In Japan, and around the world, we all times become passive observers, apathetic to deceit and the challenges the fae our entire planet. It is up to all of us to act in a more proactive and positive way, and create lasting change. We should listen to Mother Nature and think honestly about our past, our present, and our future behavior.”

2014
Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi
KYOTOGRAPHIE Co-founders / Co-direcotrs

KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival, which has become a spring feature of Kyoto, is marking its seventh anniversary this year. The official website has also evolved, and from this year we have launched the “Stories” page. We would like to introduce the history of the festival from the first to the present as a feature.

Twelve outstanding exhibitions in 12 resonating Kyoto venues were held as part of KYOTOGRAPHIE’s premier edition. These major exhibitions were presented in various locations, reflecting Kyoto’s diverse cultural, and natural history. Kyoto’s contribution architecturally and historically cannot be surpassed. The participating venues represent a small selection of this city’s amazing array of sites, welcoming people to appreciate Kyoto’s diversity and its incredible significance on a global scale.

“Arriving in Kyoto two years ago, roaming around on bicycles and discovering new treasures, we mused about creating an international photography festival. We both work with moving image and our creative practice was inspired by the timeless capital. Each discovery and experience excited us, our idea gradually expanded and we decided to call the festival KYOTOGRAPHIE. Like the beautiful Rencontres d’Arles festival in France, we wanted our festival to be a journey through time and space. We felt it intrinsic to express the historical and contemporary elements of Kyoto, while exhibiting photographers from Japan and around the world. Kyoto was our ideal venue, due to its international appeal and its authenticity.

Japan’s photographic technology sets the global standard in the industry, yet surprisingly Japan’s talented, original, and prolific photographers are often more esteemed and better recognized abroad than within the country.

KYOTOGRAPHIE’s intention was to stage the work in the shrines, temples, machiyas, teahouses and other emblematic locations of the city. By enlisting the help of professional scenographers and designers we ensured that the photography and the venues would complement and coalesce; one enhancing the other. It was our hope that by engaging Kyoto’s traditional artisans a broader spectrum of Kyoto’s society would feel that this is truly their festival.

KYOTOGRAPHIE would never have happened without the trust and support of our many sponsors and partners; all governmental bodies and Institutions; the talented photographers who participated in this first of what we hope will become an annual festival. We would like to express our greatest gratitude to them, as well as to our multi-talented team, everyone who has nurtured and help make it possible for our common dream to grow and blossom before the world.”

2013
Lucille Reyboz & Yusuke Nakanishi,
Co-founders and Directors of KYOTOGRAPHIE

Lucille Reyboz
Photographer. Born in 1973, Lucille Reyboz began her journey with photography in Africa, where she spent most of her childhood, and discovered Japan in 1999, invited by Ryuichi Sakamoto to collaborate on his opera “Life”. A portrait photographer, Lucille Reyboz also produced numerous record covers for labels such as Blue Note and Verve. While developing a prolific photography practice, she exhibited her work around the world, most notably in Visa pour l’image (2001), Phillips de Pury in New York (2007) and CHANEL NEXUS HALL, Tokyo (2011). She published several books, including Batammaba by Gallimard, Source, Belles de Bamako and Impressions du Japon with Keiichiro Hirano by Editions de la Martinière. Lucille Reyboz now lives and works in Kyoto, where she co-founded KYOTOGRAPHIE with Yusuke Nakanishi in 2013.

Yusuke Nakanishi
Lighting Director. Yusuke Nakanishi was born in 1968 and is a lighting artist who travels the world, and expresses his impressions of light and shadow from his memories. He has worked as a lighting director for feature films, stages, music concerts, fashion shows and interior designs. He also created the Eatable Lights object series, and has exhibited installations at the Hara Museum, the School Gallery Paris, and Nuit Blanche Kyoto.

Prior to opening of KYOTOGRAPHIE 2019 the festival will hold a poster archive exhibition to celebrate the renewal of NTT West Collaboration Plaza.

This year is the 7th edition of KYOTOGRAPHIE, our poster exhibition celebrates the journey we have gratefully taken with you since 2013!

KYOTOGRAPHIE believes our poster is one of the most meaningful ways to communicate with our audience, it carries the annual message and the main visuals.

We look forward to seeing you for the 7th edition of KYOTOGRAPHIE, opening on Saturday, April 13th!

◼️Dates: 2019.3.18 Mon.ー3.29 Fri.
◼️Opening Time: 09:30ー17:00 （except Sat./Sun./Holidays）
◼️Venue: NTT West Sanjo Collaboration Plaza
◼️Access: Subway Karasuma/Tozai Line “Karasumaoike” Station.