Tokihiro Sato Photograph - July 29: UPDATE

The Sato photograph previously announced sold for $2250. There were 2 bidders. As there was a 17.5% buyer's premium on this item, the total was $2650.

Tokihiro Sato Photograph - July 29

Description

This is a black and white photograph created in 1990 by Japanese artist Tokihiro Sato. It measures 18 3/4" x 23" and is titled "Respiration #69." It is lot 85 from Clark Cierlak Fine Arts, to be auctioned on July 29th in Los Angeles. The opening bid is $1500 and the estimated value is between $2500 and $3000. You can find auction details here and search for additional Sato photograph listings here.

Brief Bio

Sato was born in 1957 in city of Sakata in the Yamagata Prefecture of Japan. He continues to work today as an artist and photographer.

He began his career not as a photographer, but as a sculptor, graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (known also as "Geidai") first with a BFA in 1981, and then an MFA two years later in 1983. Both degrees were in sculpture and he did not begin his career as a photographer until 1987, at the age of 30.

Beginning in graduate school, however, he used photography to record his sculpture. At one point, he attempted to make "light tracks" next to a wire sculpture he had created by waving a pen-light next to it and using a long exposure. Fascinated with the result, he began investigating how to create - in essence - photographically-recorded sculpture using only light. This investigation basically defines his photographic pursuits to the present day.

Sato's photographs take hours to create: he sets up his large format view camera in front of a landscape of some kind and uses darkened glass to allow for an extremely long exposure time. He then enters the scene, moving about so that his presence is only recorded when he shines light back into the camera. For nighttime exposures, he uses a flashlight to shine light back to his lens. For daytime exposures, he uses a small mirror. In either case, he says he always counts to 10 before moving to the next spot. In this fashion, his movements through the space of the photo are documented, although he himself is never visible. The globes of light in the photograph for auction here are the result of exactly this process.

A variety of his images can be seen on-line here (these were from a curated show entitled "Breathing Shadows" in Japan in 1997). There's also a video slide show of his work posted on YouTube. It's a quick way to get a sense of his photos. The photograph for auction here is a black and white print, but has also created transparencies, which can be illuminated from behind to further emphasize the light-tracing he does within the scene. Several examples can be seen here and here. Recently, his work has included color photographs, which can be seen at this website.

This article quotes Sato as saying that his photography "has the same significance as in monotonous activities such as long distance running or swimming, when one’s focus is only on breathing." He calls his photographs "breath-graphs" or "photo-respirations," referencing his effort in moving about the space, tracing light across the scene. His movements through the space are systematic, and have been described as being like a that of a surveyor.

Sato was given a grant by Mercedes Benz in 1993 to work in France, and subsequently received a grant the following year from the Japanese government to work in England. His work is collected by a variety of museums including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Most recently, he had a show at the Art Institute of Chicago, a brief review of which can be found here. A complete list of shows and public holdings can be found here.

Sato is presently an associate professor of photography at Geidai; his faculty page is mostly just a list of exhibits, but if you read Japanese, you can learn some additional information.

Other brief bios of this artist can be found here, here, and here.

Books

Sato has one book in English, entitled Photo-Respiration. It was published in 2005 by the Art Institute of Chicago. A very similar book was published in Japan in 1997 by Bijutsu Shuppansha. A review of the Japanese book can be found here. It is available for purchase here. Used copies of his book can be found here.

Sales

Neither artprice.com nor artnet have any listings for Sato. Mostly, his work seems to be available through galleries, such as this one in San Francisco. Find completed Sato auction listings here (requires log-in, but sign-up is trivial).