Extended Until Sunday, February 19th Due to Popular Demand! Mushrooms in Diverse Forests

At the newly opened "Blind Gallery" in Yoyogi Village, photographer Takashi Homma's "Mushrooms from the Forest 2011" is currently being held. Wild mushrooms have been a subject Homma has continuously photographed for several years. The works exhibited this time were newly shot after the spring of 2011.

Various mushrooms, such as Hypsizygus marmoreus, Boletus edulis, and Clavaria zollingeri, are photographed against a white background. It is said that the number of mushroom species inhabiting Japan ranges from 4,000 to 5,000. The shooting method and exhibition style do not dramatically present them against a backdrop of majestic nature, but rather show them as they are, like ecological photographs found in a botanical guide. It is a style akin to typology in archaeology, where a certain type is identified from the collective entity of the forest, which inhabits diverse life forms, and then classified and recorded in parallel.

Mushrooms are delicate organisms that rapidly change color and shape, losing their freshness once pulled from the soil. The mushrooms captured in the photographs have soil, fallen leaves, and sometimes twigs attached to their base, known as the "cup." Homma vividly and lively records the appearance of these forest dwellers with a large-format camera.

Of the 23 works exhibited, 16 are of mushrooms and 7 are photographs of the forests where mushrooms grow. By displaying them in an almost alternating sequence, their relationship is relatively highlighted.

The title "Mushrooms from the Forest" might suggest a symbolic meaning to readers familiar with Homma's previous works, such as his first collection "babyland" published in 1995, the photo book "Children of Tokyo" (2001) capturing the candid faces of children living in Tokyo, or "Tokyo Suburb" (1998), which calmly depicted apartment complexes and suburban shopping malls around Tokyo. However, it is also clear that, like his photographs taken without alteration of the mushrooms' natural state, these images hold no symbolic meaning.

Mushrooms, which have a symbiotic relationship with trees, are sometimes called "tree children." Perhaps for Homma, mushrooms in the forest, like children, are close beings, vulnerable and tossed about due to their freedom within society and within forests created by humans.

The venue, "Blind Gallery," is a notable gallery located within "Yoyogi Village by kurkku," which opened last November. It celebrated its grand opening with Takashi Homma's exhibition. The pre-opening exhibition featured a solo show by Dutch artist Herman de Vries, who studied landscape architecture, and was well-received.

Two works from "Mushrooms from the Forest 2011" are also exhibited at the bookshop "POST," located within the same Yoyogi Village. A photo book of the same title has also been published to coincide with the exhibition. This is also a must-see.

Takashi Homma Photography Exhibition "Mushrooms from the Forest 2011"
1-28-9 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, within Yoyogi Village
Period: Ongoing until Sunday, February 19, 2012
Open: 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM, No closing days