CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/10/2018

Kenro Izu launch event at Oblong Books

Friday, May 4 at 7 PM, Oblong Books presents photographer Kenro Izu, whose new collection of photographs of plants, fruits and human figures is new from Damiani. A presentation by the artist will be followed by a book signing.

Drawing on 19th-century photo techniques, Kenro Izu's still lifes and portraits are poised between lustrous sensuality and austere grandeur.

Kenro Izu: Seduction presents Izu's images of fruits, plants and human figures, all made with a large-format film camera and contact printed in platinum from 8x10 to 14x20-inch negatives. Izu's photographs are gorgeous--the artist, inspired by 19th-century photography methods, has been working with a large-format camera since 1983, making detailed, lustrous contact prints on hand-coated platinum palladium paper. A master technician, Izu is considered one of the greatest living platinum printers. Izu aims to capture something of the spirit or inner life of his chosen subject--whether it be a still life or an ancient, sacred monument, and describes this tension between capturing the essence and beauty of the subject as an "effort to hold myself at the very edge (before falling into the dark hole of seduction)."

KENRO IZU was born in Japan and studied at Nippon University in Tokyo before deciding to settle in New York. In 1979 he began what has become a lifelong project, traveling to photograph the world's sacred places. His journeys to Angkor Wat led him to establish a free pediatric hospital in Cambodia and found Friends Without a Border, a nonprofit organization to help Asian children.

Oblong Rhinebeck
6422 Montgomery Street
Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Please RSVP here!