Circulation: Date, Place, Events

This set features a series of three overhead black & white photographs, showing a deserted urban street, parked cars and the shifting silhouette of a passer-by. Taken in succession, the images subtly show the movement of the human figure in space, evoking a fragmented temporality. The composition plays on strong contrasts between shadows and illuminated surfaces, accentuating the raw materiality of the scene. This triptych, part of Takuma Nakahira's emblematic "Circulation: Date, Place, Events" series, reflects a radical exploration of the interactions between photography, time and space. The experimental Circulation: Date, Place, Events project involved Nakahira documenting everything around him in the course of a day, and exhibiting the results on the same day - over the course of a week. The constantly evolving exhibition was presented at the 7th Biennale de Paris, 1971. Each image captures moments of everyday life in a raw, fragmented aesthetic, true to the spirit of Provoke, the movement of which Nakahira was a major player. With this work, Nakahira questions the ceaseless flow of events and their subjective interpretation, while embodying the transience of post-World War II Japanese modernity.