Cloud in Small Lake II, Montville, ME from series Perceiving, 2012
"With my work, I am able to reconfirm my proto-identity in nature. I think that this is the most important matter for us at this time." - Koichiro Kurita
Koichiro Kurita, known for his large format platinum works, has been photographing landscapes and subjects in nature for more than 25years. He studied perceptual psychology and used camera for his experimental research when he was a college student in Kobe Japan. In the mid-1980s, Kurita read Thoreau’s Walden and deeply impressed by its message of living a life close to one’s natural environment. He quit a successful career in commercial photography in Tokyo and embarked on a new path as a landscape and nature photographer. He came to the US in 1990 as a grantee of Asian Cultural Council Foundation (a part of J.D. Rockefeller III Fund). Kurita sees in terms of “Chi Sui Ki” (1986-2006), or earth, water and air, and the borders that each of these shares with one another and ourselves. He created large scale of traditional platinum/palladium printing on handmade gampi paper. And “Perceiving” (2005-2010) series, this idea from perceptual psychology, Kurita’s multi-paneled compositions were shot a different perspective, yet together these separate fields of vision give the impression of one continuous impression, emphasizing the “Chi Sui KI” within the greater world of nature.