At first glance images in Our Face can be deceiving. Where it appears to be an ambiguous portrait of a single person, it is in fact an accumulation and stratification of several dozen individuals. The single figure we see does not exist as an actual person, nor can it be classed as a true portrait. Instead it is far closer to the demographic whole, not only a representation of the subject but a creation of a new signifier, questioning people’s very existence.
Our Face is painstakingly produced using darkroom layering process which combines dozens of negatives, images are projected on top of one another with precise exposures to create an icon of a particular community. Each work of Our Face is a unique piece of work.
About Ken Kitano
Ken Kitano (b. 1968) was born in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the College of Mathematical Engineering at Nihon University. Kitano’s photography pinpoints on the notion of ‘time’ and ‘existence’, and experiments with basic and creative dimensions of image making such as long exposure and multiple exposure. He won the ‘Society of Photography Award’ in 2004 and the ‘Newcomer’s Award’ from the Photographic Society of Japan in 2007. Kitano’s photography has been exhibited extensively in Japan and around the world. His work was collected by the National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo, Japan), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Tokyo, Japan), Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Yamanashi, Japan), Yamazaki Mazak Museum of Art (Yamazaki, Japan), Thyssen – Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection (Austria) and Irish Museum of Modern Art (Ireland).
