写真家、野口里佳の作品集。野口里佳はこれまでに、水中や高地、宇宙といった未知の領域と人間との関わりをテーマにした作品を手がけてきました。近年では、日常や周囲に満ちる無数の小さな謎の探求を通して、見るものの感覚や想像を解き放つような表現を追求しています。東京都写真美術館での個展「野口里佳 不思議な力」に際し刊行された本書では、30年にわたって自由な写真・映像表現を追求してきた野口の過去の作品シリーズと近作、新作を、それぞれの作品が呼応しあうように構成し、その作品表現に通底する本質と魅力を浮かび上がらせます。

初期作品「潜る人」（1995年）から、「夜の星へ」（2014年、2015年）、そして最新作「ヤシの木」（2022年）まで、時間や場所も超えていく写真の「不思議な力」に導かれるように、野口がこれまでに出会ってきた様々な現象や光景が描き出されます。また、父が生前に遺していたネガを、野口の眼差しを重ねてプリントした「父のアルバム」（2014年）は、「人はなぜ写真を撮るのか」と写真の根源を問い直す契機となりました。

ここにいて、どこまで遠くに行けるか ──  それぞれの存在がこの世界に生きていることの意味を見つめ直し、また写真・映像のもつ「不思議な力」とは何なのかを考えるきっかけとなる一冊です。 

ブックデザインは須山悠里。

「里佳ちゃんは、人類の在り方をはるかに超えて自分自身なのだ。頭が痛かろうと腹がいっぱいだろうと妊娠していようと里佳ちゃんは里佳ちゃんの見るべきものしか見ないし、撮るべきものしか撮らない。その徹底した在り方自体が才能なのだ。
　男でも女でもないその「ただ見つめる」目。異様なまでにブレない、世界を見る在り方。いちばん似ているのは、小学生の男の子が、正確に、完璧にプラモデルを作っているときの目の感じ。あわてず、部品を揃え、乾いてないのに触ったりせず、こつこつと、幸せでも不幸でもなく、ものすごい集中力で。  
  そんな感じで、世界の中に散らばる美しいものたちがただその瞳を通して写真に写されただけで、自ずと宇宙の法則や神の視点が導き出されてしまう。
　「この世はフィクションなんだ、ただしとても美しい。私はその秘密を見つけるためにただ 『写して』いるんだ。でもそれには目を透明にしなくてはいけない。あの状態にならなきゃいけない。でもだれにもあの状態を説明することはできないんだ」。彼女の写真を見ると、いつも、そう言われている感じがする。」───吉本ばなな「里佳ちゃんの謎」より抜粋

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.
 
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Pages: 136
Size: 263 × 228 mm
softcover with Slipcase
colour
978-4-86541-156-0

Published by AKAAKA, 2022