TOP Collection

Reading Images: The Time of Photography

Aug. 10—Nov. 4, 2019

• Aug. 10—Nov. 4, 2019
• Closed Every Monday (however, if Monday is a public holiday it will remain open and close the following day) *Temporary closing on Saturday, October 12 and Sunday, October 13
• Admission：Adults ¥500 (¥400), Students ¥400 (¥320), Junior/Senior High School Students, People aged 65 or over ¥250 (¥200). * Prices in parenthesis apply to groups of 20 or more, admission is free for grade school children or younger; junior high school students living or attending schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area, holders of Japan’s disability identification cards (shogaisha techo) together with one caregiver, and holders of the museum’s annual passport together with one accompanying person. Those aged 65 or over are admitted free on the third Wednesday of each month. * Thursdays and Fridays from August 15 (Thu.) to August 30 (Fri.), 17:00–21:00, Summer Night Museum discount applies (students, junior/senior high school students—admittance free, adults/people over 65, group prices) * September 16 (Mon., Respect-for-Senior-Citizens Day holiday) people over 65 admitted free. * Free admission for everyone on “Citizens Day, ” Oct 1 (Tue). * Multiple discounts do not apply

The TOP Collection exhibitions are held to introduce the works belonging to the collection of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. This year’s theme is ‘Reading Images’ and it considers the ways in which we interpret the visual images that comprise the ‘works’. In this exhibition we look at both individual photographs and series that have been carefully selected from our collection of over 35,000 works, focusing on the story that they relate. It will highlight the significance contained within the background of the works or the mutual relationship that joins them together; in addition, it will look at the inherent universality of the medium itself, inviting viewers to share the rich experience of ‘reading the image’.
The exhibition will focus on the image or narrative contained within the medium of photography itself and introduce the aspect of ‘time’ that this gives rise to. Photography is commonly recognized as being a method of cutting a moment out of the flow of time, but when we look at a photograph, the result from a momentary act, we sometimes find it affects our memories at a deep level, functioning as a device to summon images not only of the present, but also of a past that no longer exists or the future. In this context, photography can be said to be a medium that embodies time. This exhibition will look at the endeavors of photographers, from both Japan and abroad, to find an opportunity to move the time that lurks in the background or focusing on the chain of images they evoke, considering the photographs, their stories, and their accompanying temporal relationship from numerous angles, exploring a new aspect of the appeal of the museum’s collection.


Midorikawa Yoichi, Fireflies, from the series Seto Island Sea and its Neighborhood, 1957, Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum


Kawauchi Rinko, from the series Illuminance, 2009, Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum


Taguchi Kazuna, Look how long I've grown waiting for you, 2007, Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museu


Hatakeyama Naoya, Slow Glass/Tokyo ＃66, 2006, Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum


NASA, SHADOW ON THE MOON Photographs from the Surveyor Missions 1966-68, Collection of Tokyo Photographic Art Museum

Events

Gallery Talk by Exhibition Curator [in Japanese]

Aug. 16 (Fri) 16:00～
Sep. 6 (Fri) 16:00～
Sep. 20 (Fri) 16:00～
The curator in charge of the exhibition will give an explanation of the exhibits from 16:00 on the dates.
Participants should gather at the entrance to the 3rd floor gallery with an entrance ticket stamped for that day.

Gallery Talk by Exhibition Curator [in Japanese]

Oct. 4 (Fri) 16:00～
Oct. 18 (Fri) 16:00～
Nov. 1 (Fri) 16:00～
The curator in charge of the exhibition will give an explanation of the exhibits from 16:00 on the dates.
Participants should gather at the entrance to the 3rd floor gallery with an entrance ticket stamped for that day.