Tatsumi Orimoto / text

Tatsumi Orimoto’s central subjects are communication and interaction. He presents not only the strange, but also the familiar within the strange: The photographs of his mother remind us of a look into our own, at least imaginary, family album.

Orimoto’s subjects are old age, illness and the bodily and mental decline of his mother, by now aged 86. In our youth-oriented society this phenomenon is often disregarded. His own, slower ageing process is en passant also subject of his long term study. The likeness of mother and son becomes more clear as the years pass by, but the visualization is not melancholic, but has a cheerful distance.

Besides the “Bread Men-Performances”, Tatsumi Orimoto primarily concentrates on the project “Art Mama” with great steadiness and ever new and surprising ideas for his images, as for instance with an intimate photo-diary with small, black and white snapshots as well as medium and large sized colour prints, deliberately composed with the camera. In the new series Orimoto himself comes into the picture - as a son: we sense an emotional closeness, although communication with words is no longer possible.

 

Matthias Harder, Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin