Our Face Piling Portraits by Ken Kitano (September 26, 2009) 
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Curator Statement by the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts
All seven photographers presented this week have been selected from the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts' annual Young Portfolio Acquisitions program. The program aims at encouraging young persons enthusiastic about expressing themselves through the art of photography. The Young Portfolio Acquisitions event is not a contest. All photographers, professional or amateur and regardless of nationality, are invited to submit their published or unpublished works to be considered for induction into the Museum's permanent collection. The single condition is that applicants must not be older than thirty five years. The program started in 1995. Applicants can re-submit in subsequent years, this allows the museum to see how artists develop their vision. The museum calls for submission in April. Today's presentation: Our Face Piling Portraits by Ken Kitano.
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
I have been working on my project “our face” since 1999. In the project, I visit various local areas around the world to take photos of the various groups of people living there. On 35 mm film, I take photos of the people who form their respective communities, both old and new―people at work places, students at schools, groups of athletes, participants in traditional events and religious people. Then I create a portrait by evenly layering the images of the members of each group with a precise analog printing technique. In this globalization age, the project attempts to capture the world as an accumulation of localities. The resulting portraits are of equal value as images of a wide range of people with different thoughts, cultures, and customs.
The “our face” project is an ongoing process—I began the project in my own country Japan in 1999. Since 2008, I have been working on images of people across Asia, from the Middle East to East Asia. This should take about three to four years. In the near future, Asia is expected to account for half of the world’s population and is experiencing phenomenal economic growth, especially in countries like India and China. After Asia, I plan to spend a few years working on an American Continent series (South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and North America). After that, I will proceed to Eurasia and Africa. When I finish in Africa, I will have a layered and fused image of people from all walks of life from all over the world. Please e-mail me and I will come to take photos of your group. I would be very happy if you would join this global-scale portrait project.
Ken Kitano is represented by MEM Gallery, Osaka.
Ken Kitano (1968) lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.
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