Hideyuki Ishibashi

Hideyuki Ishibashi was born in Kobe (1986).

He studied Photography at the Nihon University College of Art in 2009 in Tokyo and at Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains (promotion Chantal Akerman) in 2018. Currently living and working in Paris and Lille.

His work is based on photography and he mainly uses techniques of collage.
Ishibashi had his first exhibition, Présage, in 2013 at the BT Gallery in Tokyo. In 2014 he received the SFR Jeunes Talents "LILLE 3000" lauréat, and was nominated for the Prix Voiers Off in 2013. He is the winner of Meijburg Art Commission 2018.

Regarding one of his series 'Limen' (2017) Ishibashi has given the following insights:

'There is an inevitable relationship between the lens and a subject when we use a camera to capture an image, proving its existence. On the other hand, halations, gradations and blurs clash with the purpose of recording. The reason why I am attracted to this aspect of photography is because I can recognise that this information has been recorded by the camera and not by our eye or our memory. New technologies prevent halation and blurring, offering us a clear and sharp image. It is more attractive than the reality that our eyes can capture. Hence we increasingly depend on the eye of a photographic camera instead of our own eyes and our time of direct observation of the diminished object.

During my research, I collected the fragments which disappeared because of halation, blurring or gradations and tried to save the information that remained. I extracted these fragments of digital noises and colours that usually get in the way of our gaze. By crafting these repaired fragments and these noises into a patchwork, I realised that what I'd gathered together were lost moments rather than a lost image. Contrary to the custom that expects photos to be "frozen" on paper, I wanted to use shadows, and to freeze the image directly in the mind of visitors. Here, photography isn't frozen but evanescent and it's the visitors' eye that proceeds in the recording. This project offers us the time to rethink our relationship with photography at this time, through the question: What does "to be taken in a photograph" really mean?'

About his series 'Présage' from 2014 and his method of working Ishibashi has stated:

"At present we are able to consume an enormous amount of images everyday. The development of the digital camera and the subsequent appearance of cameras in mobile phones is now multiplied by photo sharing on social networks. Information technology has caused a new dilemma, we have a plethora of images, but I feel that the time we spend looking at each image is now very short.

In this project I use photographs found at antique markets, random postcards, shots from Google Street View, and anonymous internet images born of another's point of view. By putting these images together I have dissimilated them and created new images. These new images are a foothold for the act of viewing itself.

In order to use found images as material for these works, (and to specifically disassociate them from their previous meaning) I took great care to break them apart delicately. At their first instance of joining these images have a mosaic-like facade. I then assiduously erase all the traces of their merging. After completing corrections to an almost impossible degree, a new image, one seemingly closer to an original piece of photography begins to emerge. Dust, droplets of water, and reflections caught when scanning accumulate and effect, too. Finally, the images transform and acquire a new and more ambiguous existence. Now, they exist somewhere between 'reality' (raw image) and a 'figment of my imagination (processed image).'

With these images born of the artistic process I wish to give viewers time to rethink the act of seeing, and to see the ambiguity within the deceptively simple act of 'seeing things as they are.'"