Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (2015-2016)
These photographs are inspired by the famous set of woodcuts āThirty-six Views of Mount Fujiā Katsushika Hokusai produced between 1830 and 1832.
Despite the wide variety of shown scenes, most of Hokusaiās colour prints share a common structure. In the foreground people are going about their daily business, the middle ground refers to a different time-scale like seasons or things decaying, and finally a glimpse of mount Fuji hints at changes too slow to be perceived during a human life.
Hokusaiās woodcuts are part of a genre called ukiyo-e, which means āimages from a floating worldā, floating both in time and in space. They are clearly composed in different layers, letting Mount Fuji hover above or next to the world of humans. Often civilisation intrudes graphically into Fujiās sacred space. Trees or posts cut into the mountainās silhouette, house roofs and other constructions imitate its triangular profile.
Hokusaiās prints share several elements with photographs: they represent fleeting moments, they create a memory of simple events and peopleās relationship with time is a major subject in the images. Just as photographs the prints are mechanically reproducible and they were affordable and not considered high-brow art.
This series is about time, about moments, seasons, years, lifetimes.
Published with the support of the CNA Award ā Supporting creation and publishing in photography, Centre national de lāaudiovisuel (CNA), Luxembourg.
ĆditĆ© avec le soutien de la Bourse CNA ā Aide Ć la crĆ©ation et Ć la diffusion en photographie, Centre national de lāaudiovisuel (CNA), Luxembourg.