Birds On The Heads | Bodies In The Dark / Munemasa Takahashi

Munemasa Takahashi

Birds On The Heads | Bodies In The Dark

Set of two books

Both 190mm×148mm, 36pp, saddle-stitched

Click here to view flip through video of book

The pair of pictures shown here, the white one and the black one, represents a contrast between something tangible (which is apparently easy to explain) and something ambiguous(which requires one's imagination to grasp). The act of seeing things, I believe, lies somewhere in the gradation of colours between these two extremes. And we are made so that we are most prone to oversight when we believe we see something clearly. Whenever you are standing somewhere and looking at someone, there always will be a blind spot too. If you forgot that, you may get hurt sometimes. Like when, say, you'are in love."

Munemasa Takahashi has been thinking about the role of photography in this world since he started his career. Takahashi did not express his own story in his first work “Skyfish”, and had focused his theme on the structure of the relationship between the images and the viewers without any extra information or explanation. 

Then he realized the importance of photographs and how they work in this world via his big project “LOST&FOUND PROJECT” showing the family photos damaged by the tsunami in 2011 around the world. In “Laying Stones” Takahashi embarks on a challenge of translating his personal experiences to visible images, as his photographs beckon us to reflect upon our own personal experiences and memories. 

This time, Takahashi would like to present a set of two series: Birds on the Heads and Bodies in the Dark. As he mentions in his statement, each of the series represents what seem to be understandable and what seem to be not understandable, respectively. 

Everybody has their own experiences in their lives, and makes decisions everyday. Therefore, we can say that each person has different eyes when seeing photography. The way you have got to understand it might be different from the way others understand. 

What does it really mean to see with one’s own eyes?

Two saddle-stiched softcovers, with accompanying text sheet