ONLINE DOSSIER: RINKO KAWAUCHI

All images by Rinko Kawauchi.

Rinko Kawauchi is a contemporary Japanese photographer known for her lyrical images of elemental subjects. Based in the Shinto religion as well as the works of Irving Penn, Kawauchi’s photographs capture ordinary moments with a profound almost hallucinatory perspective. »From the black ocean comes the appearance of light and waves. It helps you imagine birth,« she has mused. »I want imagination in the photographs I take. It’s like a prologue. You wonder, ‘What’s going on?’ You feel something is going to happen.«

I see the resemblance of my photographs with Kawauchi's and maybe that is why I find it very hard to actually describe her pictures. They are beautiful and nice, innocent, floral and female. She seems to be able to find her way of seeing things in everyday situations. Her captures are over the tops dreamy. In comparison, my photographs are down to earth. This leads to the question where my rose-colored glasses are. My pink photoshoot, with the flowers all over, has elements of this but is less innocent.