• Technical

Fine art photograph on Canson Infinity 310 gram paper, signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 5.

Sheet dimensions (excluding frame): 48.5 cm x 33.5 cm

Artwork delivered with a certificate of authenticity

• Artist biography

Born in the small village of Aikawa, near Tokyo, Hatsuo Adachihara always drew and painted. A rather solitary child, he created small watercolors, often inspired by the colorful autumns of his region. His eye for detail also led him to visit a garage near his home to draw and paint mechanical parts, wheels, and small dangling screws.

At university, he was drawn to scientific disciplines but also to philosophy and art. When he was a student in Tokyo, at the age of 22, an exhibition of paintings by 19th-century Flemish masters captivated him. The ethereal light emanating from the canvases of Hobbema, van Ruisdael, and Cornelis Koekkoek (1803-1862), painters often cited by Van Gogh, dazzled him. His studies then took him away from his artistic pursuits. He went to the USA (for ten years) where he earned his doctorate in mathematics before moving to Scotland, then to Paris, where he worked for the CNRS (in numerical laser analysis and nonlinear mathematics).

Returning to Japan after a twelve-year absence, he no longer felt at home. Demotivated and depressed, he took photographs to escape his isolation. He found Japan "ugly" and felt the need for something different. Arriving in Nice for love of a local woman, he had to adapt to a lifestyle, but above all to a light and atmosphere very different from his native Japan. His photographer's eye for Nice gradually refined itself: "I used to see the city as a gateway to Italy before better understanding it and loving it for itself, for its atmosphere, its colors—yellow, orange, blue—so different from Japan, where an infinite number of greens dominate. But even though nature is drier here, Nice reminds me of my homeland."

For him, colour is more subjective than line or form; it expresses the world more sensitively.

Photographing "beautiful things" became a mission, a way of understanding the world, of showing what seduces and enchants him. Photography also contributes greatly to his interests in philosophy, and even mathematics.

At the time, reading John Berger resonated with his own questions: “I believe that bridging the gap between the human mind and ‘nature’ in the broadest sense is a very deep human need. And painting responds to this need, because it involves truly looking, questioning with your eyes what is before you. (...) painting is very much linked to the mysterious substantiality of the world, of nature, of life.”

For Hatsuo, photography serves the same purpose: to question the world, to identify the connections and hidden meanings within it, and not to display objects for sale. The industrialization of images, born from advertising, disembodies and depoeticizes the world. The virtual world fosters a profound sense of isolation, and the billions of images that bombard us manipulate our consciousness.

He insinuates himself into the city, taking photos of people from behind, just a passing figure, or two (he likes to photograph couples), rarely more. He is intrigued by their gaze: What do they see? He enjoys photographing "normal people doing normal things in a fabulous landscape": lovers admiring a coastline, a port, seen a thousand times, but always to be rediscovered, the light that penetrates the small streets leading to the sea, the sunlit arches, the Promenade des Anglais, the old pier (now destroyed), the diving board at La Réserve, etc., everything that attracts him and makes him happy.

In Hatsuo's photos, we also find the verticals and horizontals of Japanese prints, their deep perspectives, and the peaceful side of things.

Like Van Gogh, Hatsuo Adachihara isn't afraid to exaggerate colors. In his "photo-paintings" of Nice, they seem to diffuse throughout the space, creating an impression of unreality, or augmented reality. Thanks to their subtle exaggeration, his landscapes appear more like visions, like memories that have taken on different, more intense colors in the mind.

"I would like to make it more intimate, simpler, no big photos of mountains, just small photos of trees, small landscapes. To show the beauty of small things, their flavor, their tranquility, their harmony, their poetry."