09/11/2024
My photo book, "By the river, I can't hear the seagulls cry." is available at the table of C29 "PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT / PHOTOBOOK WHO CARES" in Polycopies, Paris Photo
If you are in the area, please stop by and take a look, until November 10th!
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Tomohiro Sato / "By the river, I can't hear the seagulls cry."
I have been living along the river for more than 30 years.
Suddenly, I came up with the idea. I walked from downstream to upstream of Arakawa Sumida Rivers where I now live.
There were more structures and no people than my expectation. The area is quiet and serene. But there were signs of life. The scenery downstream was different from my childhood memories, and I was surprised to discover something unknown.
Although I have few memories of my childhood, I still vividly recall the memory of the river. Catching fish in the upperstream, often playing in the flum flowing from the river midstream while leaving school and so on.
I searched for old photos, tracing my fragmented memory, but I could not find any. My memory is vague as to whether or not I took photographs in the childhood.Now, more than 30 years after my childhood, I am living by the river with my own children.
Death is buried by the river. There would have been parents and children there. The structures along the river are serene, as if they were built as cenotaphs or tombstones to honour something. If cenotaphs, tombstones and photos are devices for remembering death, what is it that we are trying to remember?
Memories repeatedly appear in front of my eyes, as the signs left behind in the river overlap with the photographs. I am still searching for something I was separated from in my childhood.
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