Sonia/artiststatements

Yoshinori Muzutani - write up about her work
"She uses a method developed to obtain hyperrealist images in order to produce a series that vacillates between the oneiric and the pictorial. The relationship her photography maintains with nature goes beyond the established patterns. Her images seem to interpose distance between the viewer and nature through an overlay of somewhat blurry surfaces in which nature appears estranged. Yet, at the same time, her approach evinces a penchant for an impressionist aesthetics, with its sensitivity to the subtle colors. She achieves a double effect of proximity and distance that turns out to be really interesting.

This effect, which is both aesthetic and sensorial, is not new in Mizutani’s work. When one’s work tackles a technical issue, chance can be an ally. In the case of Mizutani, there is also a prior intention. Just as in her previous works we can discern a deliberate path that makes it possible to foresee the result.

Technology and sensibility
Mizutani’s previous projects directly inform the HDR_nature series. For example, we find the same interest in getting under the skin of things and the same interest in color. Her prior work also addresses the natural and the uncanny—themes are developed in HDR_nature. What is new here is the use of the HDR technique, and in particular introduction of movement into the shot.

The more recent series show an interest in the relationship between nature and the fantastic. A domesticated nature, such as that of parks or ponds, belongs, in Mizutani’s work, to the realm of the unconscious. Nature also appears to reveal to us something that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Even the cover of the book HDR_nature creates an interesting visual effect with a sheer cloth binding that shimmers as it is being handled. It foreshadows the contents: a multiplication of images as if stacked one on top of the other. And just as in nature, where sunlight changes the appearance of things, the images seem to change depending on the time of day."

Source: Yoshinori Mizutani