Ken Ohara Japanese, Lives in USA, b. 1942
with (album), 1998
123 gelatin silver contact prints mounted in an accordion-folded album
5 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3 in
14 x 11.4 x 7.6 cm
14 x 11.4 x 7.6 cm
Series: with
Titled, dated, and signed by the artist
KOHWB01
Photo: © Ken Ohara and Courtesy MIYAKO YOSHINAGA, New York
Further images
During each photo shoot, Ohara carried this album to show his sitter how their portrait would emerge after the experimental one-hour exposure session. The album evolved throughout the project, with...
During each photo shoot, Ohara carried this album to show his sitter how their portrait would emerge after the experimental one-hour exposure session. The album evolved throughout the project, with contact prints added one by one—from the first sitter (the artist himself) to the last—eventually encompassing 123 portraits.
"with" is Ken Ohara’s series of one-hour-exposure portraits of strangers, in which each subject assumes a new identity through the passage of time. The conventional judgments we bring to portraiture dissolve in the blur of a lingering hour. The indistinct outlines of a head or body gain an unexpected power through their loss of detail, while the surrounding environment offers subtle cues to individual presence. Taken together, Ohara’s collective subjects form a wry and melancholy self-portrait of the absent artist.
"with" is Ken Ohara’s series of one-hour-exposure portraits of strangers, in which each subject assumes a new identity through the passage of time. The conventional judgments we bring to portraiture dissolve in the blur of a lingering hour. The indistinct outlines of a head or body gain an unexpected power through their loss of detail, while the surrounding environment offers subtle cues to individual presence. Taken together, Ohara’s collective subjects form a wry and melancholy self-portrait of the absent artist.