About This Image

Signed, dated, titled and editioned (1/5).

Provenance: Artist to MEM Gallery to collector Shirley Ross Davis.

After the earthquake and the Sarin attack by Aum, Kitano developed a sense of emptiness and suffered a creative block for several years. During this time, he went out to meet people with his camera, and started to take portraits of them.

He instinctively overlaid several of these images on photographic paper, one after another in the darkroom. That is how the "Our Face" series was born. In the end, he traveled around the countries of Asia photographing people, and compiled 133 overlaid images in a collection which became his signature work—our face: Asia. He photographed dozens of people in groups of various races, occupations, and ages, then printed their portraits on top of one another, revealing a face that represented the group. This is why our face is singular.

When he first saw the image appear as one face through the developing fluid in the darkroom, Kitano was thrilled and fascinated by its beauty. He saw himself in it. We can not be separated from others. They are why I am, and vice versa.

The monograph of the series has been published by Seigensha. In this monograph all the images from the series have been reproduced along with text from the artist and Yu Hidaka.

Kitano was born in 1968 in Tokyo. He graduated from Nihon University’s College of Industrial Technology in 1991.

He had a one-person show, Flow and Fusion (I.C.A.C. Weston Gallery, Tokyo, Japan) in 1993. He participated in the Young Portfolio Acquisitions show (Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Yamanashi, Japan) in 1996. His one-person show, our face was exhibited in 2006 (Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, Japan) and he participated in a group show Photography Today (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan). our face was exhibited in 2016 (Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, China). In 2007 he received The Photographic Society of Japan’s Rookie of the Year award. In 2011 he received the 14th Okamoto Taro Modern Art Award’s Special Award.

From 2013 to 2014 he lived in Los Angeles researching as an up-and-coming artist chosen by the government of Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.

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