Yokonami /
1000 Children
OCTOBER 8 - NOVEMBER 22, 2015
De Soto Gallery presented an exhibition of works by Japanese photographer Osamu Yokonami from October 8 through November 22, 2015. This was the artist’s second exhibition with the gallery.
With the rhythmic repetition and seriality that defines his style, Yokonami photographed one thousand schoolgirls, aged three to five, in identical dress, pose, and setting. Inspired by Sanjūsangen-dō Hall in Kyoto—famed for its thousand nearly identical statues of the Buddhist goddess Kannon—he expanded the initial project from one hundred to a thousand portraits, capturing both sameness and difference in quiet, deliberate detail.
Each child poses with a piece of fruit held between her left ear and shoulder. While the variety of fruits introduces subtle variation, it is the small shifts in posture and expression—a tilted head, an awkward shrug, a wince or smile—that reveal the individuality within uniformity. Viewed collectively, the portraits oscillate between singularity and homogeneity.
Yokonami’s methodology is deeply informed by Japanese aesthetics and philosophies of identity. His stripped-down compositions reflect ideals of innocence and purity, while the full series gestures toward a dynamic, unified whole. In Japan, even young children begin learning “kejime”—the distinction between honne (inner self) and tatemae (public face). Yokonami locates a kind of grace in the emotional transparency that precedes this split, inviting reflection on how identity is shaped within and against the collective.
As a counterpoint to his Assembly series, 1000 Children offers a more intimate meditation on selfhood, suggesting a reciprocal connection between individuality and shared belonging. Through each reiteration, Yokonami’s work continues to ask how we see ourselves—alone and in relation to others.
A limited edition monograph accompanied the exhibition.
Osamu Yokonami (b. 1967, Kyoto, Japan) has had numerous solo exhibitions in Japan and the United States and participated in the Daegu Photo Biennial. His personal and commercial work appears widely in Japanese publications.
