Noguchi Rika took up photography in 1992, while still a student. Since being awarded first prize in the photography category of the 3.3m Exhibition in 1995 and the New Cosmos of Photography competition in 1996, she has been considered one of Japan's foremost contemporary photographers, with her photographs and video works displayed in numerous exhibitions both nationally and overseas. Through series such as To Dive (1995), A Prime (1997 on), I Dreamt of Flying (2003) and The Sun (2005-08), her work has explored the relationship humans have with unknown realms such as underwater, high-altitude places, and outer space, while her work using pinhole cameras hones in on the very essence of the photographic medium.
From the outset of her career, Noguchi has exhibited major differences in her artistic leanings to those creators of her generation who emerged onto the scene at a similar time. From the nineties through to the noughties, against a backdrop of a wave of visual artists who were highlighting and problematizing social preconceptions and values, and the new form of photography emerging at the hands of young creators who captured their private lives in a diaristic fashion, Noguchi's adventurous approach guided by her pure curiosity, her affirmative stance towards the world, and her somewhat aloof perspective that could even be called cosmic made her immediately stand out.
The title "Small Miracles"came out of the realisation on Noguchi's behalf that she has been guided in her practice up to this point by the "miraculous power" at work in photography. This book looks at Noguchi's past series together with her more recent works and latest works alike from a 2022 perspective. ［...]
"Photographs are like the clues to a riddle. Creation is a journey. My works of art are my ethics. At the same time they are always about the coincidental reality that transcends everything. I will go on taking photos. For the riddles that make up 99% of my days." These words of Noguchi's upon being awarded first prize in the New Cosmos of Photography competition for To Dive have not dated at all, to the point that it's hard to believe they're 25 years old. Is that because Noguchi has kept on making work according to what interests her, without ever straying off course?
"I take pictures with a camera, but it feels more like the camera is letting me take them, or is guiding me, escorting me to all kinds of different worlds." Which will be the next door to be opened? Noguchi's journey, guided by the force of the small miracle that is photography, continues. Through those photographs and video works, we can sense that the world we live in lavishly overflowing, open and bright.
At the bottom of the sea or the end of the street, in the depths of the forest or the corner of kitchen, it's time to sense an unknown universe spreading out before let's there together. go So reads the invitation that Noguchi Rika's photographs and video works, guided by some miraculous power, quietly offer us.
Designed by Yuri Suyama.
- Pages: 136 Size: 263 × 228 mm softcover with Slipcase colour 978-4-86541-156-0
