Luminous: Lighting the Way — SAMURAI FOTO × BAPC at KG+ 2026
I’m excited to share that I am participating in the SAMURAI FOTO group exhibition Luminous: Lighting the Way at the Dohjidai Gallery in Kyoto. 13 of their members and 5 BAPC members are in the show. I will show a handful of Burn Line images. I’m also putting on a solo show in this amazing photo festival in Kyoto. It’s my 4th time participating in the festival.
This year’s theme, explores photography’s deep relationship with light — not just as an optical phenomenon, but as a cultural, emotional, and philosophical force. Photography, rooted in the Greek roots photos (light) and graphen (to write), becomes a way of inscribing experience with meaning through illumination. The works in this exhibition are organized into thematic strands — from Literal Light and Enlightenment & Insight to Light on the Unseen and Beauty in Simplicity — and collectively invite viewers to reconsider how light shapes what we see and how we understand our place in the world.
Curator: The show is curated by Deborah Klochko. From 2006 to 2023, she led the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) as Executive Director and Chief Curator. Over the course of her tenure, Deborah Klochko helped redefine how photography is presented, collected, and critically interpreted. Her advocacy for visual literacy has positioned it as a crucial competency in contemporary culture, bridging audiences across disciplines and borders. She has worked with Samurai Foto before and this show is the 2nd in a 5 year, 5 part series.
Dohjidai Gallery (google map)
April 21 – May 3, 2026
Daily: 12:00–19:00 (final day until 17:00)
Free opening reception: April 22, 5-7pm
I’m honored to be included among this group of artists whose work embodies such breadth and depth. If you’ll be in Kyoto within the exhibition window, I hope you’ll visit — especially for the ways the work asks us to feel and think about light, perception, and experience.
A Solo Show Announcement: While this group exhibition is a meaningful moment in my practice, I’m also thrilled to let you know that I will also present a solo exhibition at the KG+ festival.
Thank you for following along. I’m honored to be included in this international dialogue between Japanese and Bay Area photographers. If you’re in Kyoto during the festival, I would love for you to see the work in person. Please contact me for a private tour.
Curation：Deborah Klochko デボラ・クロチコ
アート写真美術館(サンディエゴ)名誉館長
プロフィール
日時 / Date / 2026年 4月21日(火)から5月3日(日)
April 21 (Tue) to May 3 (Sun), 2026
時間 / Time / 12:00-19:00（最終日は17:00まで）(closed mondays)
出展者 ・ 写真家 / Artists
大西俊正 / 後藤直 / 佐々木一弘 / 佐々木浩二 / 佐藤裕保 / 佐藤均 / 佐藤素子 / 千代田路子 / 蓮見浩明 / 藤森彩海 / 升本真理子 / 村田光司 / 吉田繁
Ari Salomon / Gene Dominique / Henry Bowles / Ingo bork / Rusty Weston
場所 / Venue 同時代ギャラリー(アクセス) Access Link
京都市中京区三条通御幸町東入弁慶石町56 1928ビル2F
Tel:075-256-6155
Google Map
Statement:
火は風景や家屋を焼き尽くす一方で、私たちの暮らしや心の景色との深いつながりを鮮明に映し出します。本作『Burn Line』は、カリフォルニアの山火事を題材に、喪失と再生、そして変容を見つめる作品です。
ギャラリーには無垢材の家屋が佇み、窓の向こうには火災後のロサンゼルスの光景が広がります。柱の間には、作家が「パイロタイプ（Pyrotype）」と呼ぶ木版作品が並びます。火災で失われた品々の写真をCNCルーターで木に刻み、慎重に炭化させることで、イメージは燃え殻の中に幻影のように宿り、実体を持った「物体」として立ち上がります。
本作は、脆さと強さ、破壊と保存のあわいに立ち、灰の中から芽吹く新たな命と意味を静かに見つめます。
My Burn Line series transforms photographs into charcoal objects. I engrave images into wood and then burn the surface, allowing fire—an extreme form of light—to become part of the photographic process itself. The resulting pyrotypes are fragile artifacts, images that have physically passed through fire.
The works draw from photographs connected to the Los Angeles wildfires, depicting objects and symbols tied to places that were destroyed.
Alongside these works, I present black-and-white photographs made in Altadena after the fires, grounding the pyrotypes in the physical landscape where these images began.
LINKS
- samurai-foto.jp
- kgplus.kyotographie.jp
- KG+ Group show (exhibition 130) (JP)
- KG+ Solo show (exhibition 29) (JP)
