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THE VOID #17

ISHIKAWA Naoki

2005

Ishikawa is both a photographer and an adventurer who has accomplished expeditions of all kinds, such as canoeing down the Yukon River in Alaska, successfully walking from the North Pole to the South Pole, and climbing the highest mountains of the world's seven continents. Wherever he travels, he uses a camera to record what he sees. "Polar" is a series of works photographed during several years in Alaska, Greenland, Scandinavia, and other regions of the Arctic Circle. We see from Ishikawa's perspective a harsh natural environment encompassed by icebergs of awesome beauty human lifestyles rich in tradition and wisdom, and people eking out an existence amid troubling signs of global warming. The photographs reveal to us an invisible human network that transcends national boundaries. Ishikawa created "The Void" during a visit to the virgin forests of New Zealand in search of materials for building a canoe. An aura of deep sanctity pervades these forests, which are the sacred land of New Zealand's Maori People. We have a sense of transcending time and encountering a primeval age. "New Dimension" visits the prehistoric cave paintings that have been discovered in regions all over the world. The photographs examine the traces left by prehistoric peoples, such as the paintings of hands in a Patagonian cave, created by the "negative hand" method, in which pigment was blown over a hand placed on the cave wall.
Desiring to know the world, the adventurer travels to remote regions and hones his senses within the harsh, life-threatening conditions he encounters there．Amid such encounters, a moment comes when he experiences an indescribable feeling of fear, tension, and boundless joy: a moment of pure realization that "I am alive." Wanting to experience again that "something that agitates the soul," Ishikawa sets off on another expedition. While a journey in the literal sense of physical movement, Ishikawa's expeditions are at the same time an adventure of the spirit. With his photographs as a portal, viewers embark on a journey of the imagination and glimpse the awesome energy of the realization, "I am alive."