34 girls cosplaying as Japanese anime characters 台北市のコミックマーケットに来たコスプレの人々34人を重ねた肖像、台湾、台北

KITANO Ken 北野謙

In 1999, KITANO Ken (b. 1968) started the 〈our face〉 series, in which he layered the faces of every person in a given group on top of each other. He visited various people all over the world, and combined dozens of portraits he had shot on a single sheet of photographic paper in the darkroom. Following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Tokyo subway sarin attack, both of which happened in 1995, KITANO found it impossible to find any link between the overwhelming reality of these events and everyday life. After this experience, in which the world seemed impalpable, He encountered Diego Rivera’s murals in Mexico around 1998. He was inspired by the fact that “all kinds of different people could form a single image.” In Our Face, the differences between the self and others fade, and age and facial expressions also disappear. In this way, the artist envisions a connection between himself and others, and attempts to ascertain the existence of numerous worlds.

Collection of: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Series title: our face
Title: 34 girls cosplaying as Japanese anime characters
Original title: 台北市のコミックマーケットに来たコスプレの人々34人を重ねた肖像、台湾、台北
Artist Name: KITANO Ken
Year: 2009
Material / Technique: Gelatin silver print on developing-out paper
Accession number: 10110114
Tokyo Photographic Art Museum “Search the Collection”: https://collection.topmuseum.jp/Publish/detailPage/19923/