SAKURA: Through the Lens of Doug Fogelson « Pagoda Red Book

SAKURA: Through the Lens of Doug Fogelson

Detail of Sakura 15, 109" wide x 16" high

The blooming of Japanese Sakura (cherry blossom) marks the change of the seasons from winter to spring. However they also symbolize the transience of life (mujo) and play a tremendous role in Japanese culture and ritual.

In April 2009 Doug Fogelson traveled to Japan with the express purpose of photographing Sakura during the blooming process. His journey began in Tokyo then on to Yoshino Mountain, historically the most revered area of the country for Hanami (or cherry blossom viewing), and finished in Kyoto as the last petals fell. At Yoshino native Sakura trees climb far up a winding mountain valley. As altitude increases the temperature difference affects the bloom so that flowers open successively to the highest grove near the top (where the poet Saigyo [1118-1190] lived for years lovingly admiring the trees)

The series of images shown exclusively at Pagoda Red lead the viewer through the seasons and metaphorically through the changes in life–from winter to spring; from early budding to full bloom, to mature leaf.

Artist Bio:

Doug Fogelson uses an iconoclastic multiple exposure technique in order to depict our collective surroundings, producing imagery that reflects our own alien experience of nature, as well as the distanced perspective of the viewer. His images are the result of overlapping multiple exposures along the film within the camera at the time of shooting. Fogelson’s art depicts a measured study of time, complexitiy, and space to be found when scenes correspond and multiply. The viewer becomes enmeshed in the variegated forms captured by the photographer’s eye and via the machine of the camera.

Fogelson’s process takes a stance between motion picture and still photography as his images are often shot with changing vantage points of the scenes depicted and overlapped along the film. Movement is displayed-both of photographer and subject-yet a cognitive sense of the subject in consideration is rooted in time and perhaps personal reflection or memory.

Born in Chicago in 1970, Doug Fogelson studied at Columbia College and the Art Institute of Chicago, receiving his BFA in 1994. He has been recognized by numerous publications including Art News, Focus, and Photo District News, and his work is included in prominent museum, corporate, and private collections. Fogelson exhibits in galleries, museums, and public spaces around the world.