Keiko Nomura. Melody of Light

The Melody of Light photo book is a result of the artist’s six-week stay in Wrocław – her moving freely among a variety of places and people, themes and contexts. As in her previous publications, in Melody of Light Keiko Nomura explores such topics as transience, nature, body, soul travel and the water cycle. With the help of a lens – both on film and in digital form – she captures life, going on as if detached from time and place.
In her new photo book the artist juxtaposes and mixes photos from two cities. The element that connects photographs from Tokyo and Wrocław is light. It is the light that makes landscapes and portraits peculiarly unreal and the spaces of both cities seem to merge into one patchwork metropolis. The sleepy mood that pervades the images gives the impression that time has stopped. The photos are accompanied by a short poetic essay written by the artist. Nomura herself recalls her residency and work on the book in the following way: “(…) I took photos mainly in Wrocław. I photographed a city surrounded by rich nature and its culture. I also made a lot of portraits, while interacting with people who live there.”

Keiko Nomura studied photography in Osaka and Los Angeles. Her first photo book, Deep South (1999), which presents the artist’s Okinawan roots, attracted interest, especially due to its unique colour range and rich emotionality. Since then Nomura has been one of the most recognised Japanese female art photographers. In the autumn of 2021 the artist completed a residency in Wrocław as part of a residency programme for Japanese and Polish female photographers organised by BWA Wrocław Galleries of Contemporary Art in cooperation with the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.