Kino Koike: A Street and the Atmosphere

The sky is covered with skyscrapers, the streets are lined with luxury brands and high-tech electronics stores, and the city is overflowing with goods and people. This city attracts me even though I hate cities. Unlike other economic centres, there is some kind of warmth coming from this city. The rundown buildings, the old diners, the humidity, the foul smell, the sound of horns, the tumultuous crowds and even their loud talking are all phenomena reflecting some sense of indescribable warmth. This is the feeling I want to express through my photographs – the warmth coming from the city and its unique cultures and values that have been preserved while being tossed about by the waves of the times. Situated between past and future, the objects, people, expressions, and habits that appear in the photographs are all a reflection from this. Taken between 2012 and 2019, I hope that the street and the body temperatures coming from it will become a force to keep Hong Kong attractive, connect people and envelop the city in the midst of division. – Kino Koike

Kino Koike is a Tokyo-based photographer using analogue techniques in order to create works reflecting the chemical reaction between light and silver. A common goal in his practice is to discover and evolve some kind of indescribable and unknown feeling appearing from the moment the photographs were encapsulated. Through accidental and unexpected works, his main goal is to share the sense of new sensations arising from traveling and interacting with people in other places on earth. Holding a MA in Science and Engineering from Ritsumeikan University, his works has been exhibited at Photo Gallery ississ in Kyoto, Paper Pool in Tokyo and Gallery Main in Kyoto, among others. All featured photographs are from the series A Street and the Atmosphere (2019).

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