Pinhole Photography by Mieko TADOKORO
VEDUTA |
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| September 4 - November 16, 2019 |
| gallery bauhaus, Tokyo |
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VEDUTA is a genre of painting that originated in Venice in the 18th century
and refers to elaborate views of the picturesque city of Venice.
Venice is the last stop on the Grand Tour of Italy, a cultural and educational
Venice, where the children of the Western elite bought them as souvenirs.
One of the painters who made a name for himself in VEDUTA
was Canaletto (real name: Giovanni Antonio Canal).
When photography was invented in the 19th century,
"It's just like Canaletto's paintings!" and people are said to have marveled
at the exquisite rendering and light effects in the photographs.
He was a painter who seems to have anticipated photography.
The composition of the image, which looks as if it were cropped
with a wide-angle lens, is enough to convince us
that Canaletto used the camera obscura, the predecessor of the camera.
My first trip to Venice was in the last summer of the 1980s,
just before I discovered pinhole photography in Paris.
In this year of the 150th anniversary of the birth of photography,
France was hosting a number of events on the history of photography
and I happened to learn about pinhole photography there.
With optical equipment as archaic as the camera obscura, it was quite natural
for me that I have made numerous visits to Venice since then,
hoping to capture the city as it was in Canaletto's time, almost unchanged.
In the 30 years since then, the nationalities of the people who visit Venice
have changed dramatically, reflecting trends in the world economy,
yet the city's bustle as a tourist city shows no sign of slowing down.
Thanks to optical equipment that has been further upgraded
in the 21st century, VEDUTA of yesteryear is now
the backdrop for selfies and is shared all over the world.
Still, I continue to wander through the labyrinth of the VEDUTA,
picking up memories of VEDUTA through a tiny hole
in the same way as before.
