Ikko Narahara

photographer

“Light itself, which photographs use to etch the passage of time, has its source in the depths of space. We are like tennis players playing on the courts of photographs, returning volleys of energy streaming toward us from the universe.
Born in the gap between dream and reality, photography seems to carry within itself a nostalgia for these kinds of cosmic memories. The reason why we feel surrounded by the pathos of being alive and immersed in depths of inexpressible nostalgia when we look back on photographs is probably that we then encounter a “vanished time” which transcends our own existence.
One winter day toward the end of 1972 I set out from New York City, where it was snowing, for Florida. I wanted to watch the launching of the Apollo 17, the last rocket to the moon. It was thirty-three minutes past midnight on the 7th of December. A sun suddenly rose into this Southern night sky so brilliantly it momentarily took away our vision. The tremendous roar and bright light, combined with overlapping shock waves, overwhelmed me as I stood there transfixed at the sight of this spaceship riding the shock waves and soaring up into outer space. A thrill almost like a scream shot through me: “Incredible! People are actually riding inside that.”
Soon, from the tip of its trajectory, the first stage booster rocket dropped off amid billowing black smoke, and the second stage burned in the distance like a star. At that moment people all around started cheering wildly. In the upsurge of this excitement, as my kneecaps shook uncontrollably against each other, I was amazed by the following thought. I began to have the definite sensation that we who were supposed to have come to see the astronauts off were in fact being left behind on earth by them. The black smoke belching out into the sky seemed to be their parting salute to us.
At that time I felt as if I were once more looking back with fresh eyes over all the perspectives that I have spent my life exploring. There I found the contours of a journey which progressed by means of personal perspectives but that found its way back to cosmic perspectives. Life on earth, I realized, began not only with the grass under our feet but also with this undulating light covering the ground. This world, which I had casually taken for granted, suddenly seemed unbearably dear to me.
Even as it demonstrated that the earth is a sphere moving through space, Apollo 17 followed an orbital trajectory that made it look, from our two-dimensional perspective down below, as if it were slowly descending. “
Ikko Narahara

Ikko Narahara: Mirror of Space and Time, Shinchosha, 2004, pp. 201-202

Ikko Narahara was born in 1931 in Fukuoka Prefecture and died in 2020. His father, a prosecutor, moved frequently for work, so Narahara spent his youth living in various places throughout Japan. By the time Narahara began taking photographs in 1946, he was also interested in art and literature. He graduated from Chuo University in 1954 with a degree in law, and later entered the master’s program in art (specializing in art history) at Waseda University. In 1955, he joined the innovative artist group Jitsuzaisha (Real Existence). This group was led by Masuo Ikeda and Ay-O, and it also gave Narahara the opportunity to deepen his relationship with Shuzo Takiguchi and other artists such as Tatsuo Ikeda and On Kawara. At the same time, he also met Shomei Tomatsu and Eikoh Hosoe. Together with other photographers, these three founded the independent photo agency VIVO in 1959, which was dissolved in 1961. Narahara went on to photograph in various places around the world, living in Paris (1962-65) and New York (1970-74). In addition to his numerous exhibitions, Narahara has published many books of photographs, which have been well received abroad. Major exhibitions include “Human Land,” Matsushima Gallery, Tokyo (1956), “Ikko Narahara,” Maison Européenne de La Photographie, Paris (2002-2003), and “Mirror of Space and Time: Synchronicity,” Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2004). Major awards include the Japan Photo Critics Association Newcomer’s Award (1958), the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Art Encouragement Prize (1968), the Mainichi Arts Award (1968), the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award (1986), and the Purple Ribbon Medal (1996).