The Fragility of Life and the Radiance of Survival: Sarah Fujiwara
【City Magazine issue 567, Text by Reedleaf】
When a photographer faces something important in front of them, they must make a decisive decision in an instant, seize the opportunity, and press the shutter to capture the fleeting moment. Sarah Fujiwara was deeply fascinated by this prosess and behavior when she first started photography, to the point where she couldn’t break free from it. It was only later that she began to seriously consider the logic behind these actions and delve into the profound subject of “light and time” which holds both physical and philosophical significance. Gradually, she felt that using photography to express the world could become a new form of artistic expression for her, thus she determined to make it her primary creative medium.
In the early stages of her creative journey, Sarah primarily engaged in documentary photography. Her work was eventurally permanently collected by the Kiyosato photography Art Museum, inspiring her to aspire to develop photography into a career. However, juggling the dual roles of a commercial photographer and a photography artist made her daily work extremely busy, eventually leading to her falling seriously ill and undergoing surgery. During her hospitalization, she continued to capture daily scenes around her with a small film camera, including the smiles of nurses, bouquets brought by visitors, and the sky outside the hospital window, as well as any other daily life details she deemed worth documenting. Besides documenting her own struggle against the illness, she also handed a Polaroid camera to her attending physician, requesting him to take photos of her affected uterus during the surgery. After recovering and being discharged from the hospital, she showcased these series of photos to a contemporary art critic, who found them intriguing and described them as “contemporary art in action” eventurally holding an exhibition with this them in a gallery.
On one occasion, Sarah participated in an artist residency program held in France, where she had the opportunity to interact with local artists and unexpectedly found great inspiration. After this experience, she no longer felt the desire to create flat two dimensional works, but rather multidimensional works that transcend the inherent limitations of “photographs”. At the same time, she pondered repeatedly on the Latin etymology of the word “PHOTO-GRAPH”, and eventually, she decided to go back to the original definition of “painting with light”. From then on, SARAH’s choice of artistic medium and exhibition methods became more flexible. In addition to two-dimensional works, the proportion of installation works increased. Besides using light and time for photographic creations, she incorporated Japanese painting and some novel unique techniques into her works. For example, in her “Floral Trilogy” featuring lotus flowers, roses, and poppies, she actively applied a groundbreaking three-dimensional medium – a large-scale spatial installation composed of ver thirty meters of textiles. These works successfully brought her exhibition venues to father places like France and the United States, leading her to believe that her career as a visual artis was just beginning at that moment.
Text by Reedleaf
₆₇ 𝘗𝘏𝘖𝘛𝘖𝘎𝘙𝘈𝘗𝘏𝘠
生命的脆弱與生存的光輝 藤原更
當攝影師面對眼前重要的事物，必須瞬間作出果斷決定，把握良機按下快門以捕捉稍縱即逝的時光。#藤原更 (@SARAH.FUJIWARA.OFFICIAL) 剛剛開始攝影時，正是對於這個過程與行為深深著迷以至無法自拔，其後她才開始認真思考這些行為背後的邏輯，以及鑽研「光與時間」這個既有物理意義又帶哲學性的深奧課題。漸漸地，她感到利用攝影來表達這個世界可以成為一種嶄新的藝術表現方式，於是便決心以此作為個人的最主要創作媒介。
剛剛展開創作的時候，SARAH 主要從事紀實攝影。其後她的作品獲得清里攝影藝術博物館永久收 藏，推動她立志將攝影發展成為一項事業。不過，商業攝影師與攝影藝術家的雙重身份令她每天的工作非常忙碌，後來更間接導致她病重入院接受手術。在醫院治療期間，她仍不忘每天用小型相機拍下身邊發生的情景，包括護士的笑臉、訪客帶來的花束、病房窗外的天空景色，以至一切她認為值得記錄下來的日常生活細節。除了親自記錄自己與病魔抗爭的過程，她還將一部寶麗萊相機交給她的主診醫生，請求他在手術期間為她受影響的子宮拍照。病癒出院之後，她把這一輯相片展示給一位當代藝術評論家觀看，後者覺得這些作品很有意思，把它們形容為「行動中的當代藝術」，後來更以此為主題在畫廊裡舉辦了一場展覽。
有一次，SARAH 參加了一個在法國舉行的藝術家駐留計劃，期間有機會與一些當地藝術家進行交 流，意想不到地獲得很大啟發。經過這次經驗，她覺得自己最想創作的不再是平面的二維作品，而是超越「相片」先天限制的多維度作品。與此同時，她也在反覆思量「PHOTO-GRAPH」這個詞語的拉丁文本義，以至後來，她決定必須回到「用光繪畫」這個原始定義上去。從此，SARAH 的作品媒介和展示方式變得更加靈活，除了二維作品之外，裝置類的作品比例愈來愈多，除了利用光和時間進行攝影創作，她也為作品加入日本繪畫和一些新穎獨特的技法，例如她以蓮花、玫 瑰和虞美人為主題的「花卉三部曲」，便積極地應用了嶄新的三維媒介——那是一個由超過三十米紡織物構成的大型空間裝置。這些作品成功地把她的展出地點帶到法國和美國等更遠的地方，所以她認為，這時候自己作為視覺藝術家的藝術生涯才正式開始。
✍︎ 完整文章刊於 ISSUE 567
Text by 葉葦