In his practice, Yosuke Takeda investigates what is possible with the medium of photography. In his acclaimed “Digital Flare” series, he captures the phenomenon of flares that appear when a digital camera is facing a strong light. Rather than a genuine subject captured by the camera’s system, a flare is something that emerges from the relationship between the subject and the system, the light that floods the interior of the camera frame. Describing the phenomenon generated by his process, Takeda says that it is “evidence of its means, and is a mark of its existence.” He relativizes the premise that in photography the subject exists outside the camera’s system, being something that is objectified, with its image captured by the camera. His practice, in which he takes as his subject “the complex relationship between the means (camera) and the purpose (subject),” produces works that build on various types of experimentation conducted throughout the history of photography, as well as being beautiful, powerful, and intense.
Yosuke Takeda was born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, in 1982, and is currently based in Tokyo. In 2005, he graduated with a degree in philosophy from Doshisha University. Notable solo exhibitions include “cancel” (3331 GALLERY, Tokyo, 2012), “Stay Gold” (Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, 2014), “Stay Gold: Digital Flare” (Kurenboh, Tokyo, 2014), and “Ash without fire here” (Taka Ishii Gallery
Photography / Film, Tokyo, 2019). Group exhibitions include “SHOWCASE #1 curated by minoru shimizu” (eN arts, Kyoto, 2012), “FOUR FROM JAPAN: CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY” (Condé Nast Gallery, New York, 2015), “The Sun Placed in the Abyss” (Columbus Museum of Art, 2016), and “Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2016). Takeda’s works are included in the collections of the Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Bank of Spain, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
