Jerry Takigawa

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Jerry Takigawa follow American, born 1945

Lives in Monterey, California, United States

Projects/Portfolios

From the False Food Series

Introduction

False Food

To understand ecosystems is to know that our own well-being cannot be distinguished from the well-being of others. What we do to the environment, we do to ourselves. Environmental issues transcend all boundaries. In this work, I am exploring the illusion of separateness—we do not live in isolation from other beings. We are all connected through the environment. We breathe the same air. Drink the same water. With the False Food series, I am using the photographic image to bring attention to this issue. It’s a way of taking an overwhelming environmental problem and finding a way to make it personal. As an artist, I feel a responsibility to use my medium to illuminate issues that are important to me.

Today, mistaking plastic debris for food in the Pacific gyre is a common occurrence resulting in the death of countless albatross each year. The albatross’ feeding on false food is a very real example of how humans disrupt the natural order—it is also a metaphor for what may lie in our future. Plastic does not biodegrade like organic debris. It photo-degrades into smaller and smaller particles until there is a soup of molecular plastic. At this size, plastic enters the food chain and we become the albatross. How can we understand the impact of our actions? If we want to change what we detest, we must consider the consciousness and intent that has created what we see.

Special thanks to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for generously providing the plastic artifacts used in making these images

Landscapes of Presence

Introduction

Landscapes of Presence

Time and memory are the central themes of the Landscapes of Presence portfolio. Using a range of natural objects photographed against a variety of backgrounds that include textiles, calligraphic writing, and blurred photographic images, I wish to explore the nature and meaning of time—the mind’s fluctuating relationship between past, present and the eternal.

The concept of time as an illusion comes into play with old family photographs printed as blurred images to be used as a background. The final images are made in-camera shot with black and white, chromogenic, C-41 film. Because depth-of-field and scale are both compressed and expanded, there is a distortion of spatial awareness that mimics the way the conscious mind uses memory to travel back and forth through time. There is universality about vintage family photographs as we all tend to relate to our memories through an out-of-focus mental filter.

Balancing Cultures

Introduction

Balancing Cultures

After my mother passed away, my brother and I were left with boxes of old photographs. Among them were images of family members taken in camp. In my family, when anyone spoke of “camp,” they weren’t referring to an idyllic pine-scented summer retreat; they were referring to the WWII American concentration camps sanctioned by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. My Monterey-born parents were incarcerated at the Jerome, Arkansas camp. While this project gives voice to my family’s story, the process of researching and making these images has greatly informed the roots of my ideology.

Piecing together the fragments of my family history puzzle of old photographs and artifacts,I began an examination of my family’s story and the history of the American Japanese diaspora. I gained a new understanding and appreciation for the struggles my family endured to create a home in this country. This series represents personal interpretations of the emotions, insights, and deep collective acceptance of the injustices unexpressed by my immigrant grandparents and American-born parents.

There is no scientific basis for race—race and racism are social constructs. I ask you to consider how race is an institution we sanction that leads to labels, judgments, and separation—motivated by social and economic power. As an artist who works in photography, I make art so that I might know myself better and connect to a larger world. I believe if true change is to be achieved in this country, it will be through the kind of deep spiritual and emotional understanding that art can foster.

Galleries

Edition One Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, United States
Green Chalk Contemporary, Monterey, CA, United States
Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA, United States

Biography

Jerry Takigawa

Photographer and graphic designer Jerry Takigawa has been a social and environmental advocate since 1969. With forty years of practice in photography and design, he believes aesthetics is an important element in storytelling. Takigawa received a BFA, with an emphasis in painting, from San Francisco State University in 1967. He studied photography under Don Worth. While living in the San Francisco Bay Area, he utilized his art and design skills to help develop a pilot VISTA program (Volunteers in Service to America) in Oakland, California. In 1982, he became the first photographer to receive the Imogen Cunningham Award for color photography. Takigawa is a past-president of People in Communications Arts (PiCA), a trustee for the Monterey Museum of Art, and currently serves as President of the Center for Photographic Art.

Takigawa’s work is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Crocker Art Museum, the Library of Congress, the Monterey Museum of Art, The San Francisco Foundation, the University of Louisville, Syntex Laboratories Inc., The Monterey Vineyard, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, the Imogen Cunningham Trust, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Cross-Reference

2013 Review Santa Fe 100

Website

takigawaphoto.com

Blog

ideasoup.takigawadesign.com

Contact

For print inquiries, please contact any of the fine galleries below.

Edition One Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, United States
Green Chalk Contemporary, Monterey, CA, United States
Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA, United States

For other inquiries, contact the artist using the form below.

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