Atelier VGI

Our photobook artist Chika Usui (co-author with her husband Ichio of "Communities bound together by a common destiny") is currently exhibiting in Kyoto as a participant in KG+, the satellite event to the world-famous Kyotographie photo festival. If you're in the area, stop by. Chika has arranged for a special promotion this weekend at Kyoto's Daimaru department store for her exhibit of "Kakashi World," based on life-size "scarecrows" used to "repopulate" a remote village w...here the younger people have left for jobs in the cities, and the elderly residents are slowly passing away. This is a demographic phenomenon taking place through Japan. Her work is a poignant response to the growing loneliness of the elderly in Japan, especially in these rural areas. We're proud that this is the second year in a row Chika has been selected by world-famous photography experts such as Simon Baker (former photo curator of the Tate) to appear at KG+.

This was the gallery installation at KG+ 2019 in Kyoto which initially attracted our attention to Chika & Ichio Usui's work, "Communities bound together by a common destiny." After seeing this, and meeting the artists again at Foto Fever later in the year, after they won the Paris Gallery First Floor Award for this project, Atelier VGI proposed a collaboration with Chika & Ichio to publish our newest fine art photobook release of the same name. We're happy that Chika was in...vited back to KG+ this year as a solo artist for her work on a separate project, "The Beautiful Kakashi World." It is on display in Kyoto as part of the KG+ Select 10 exhibit until October 18, 2020. We're also proud to know that the judges for her selection included Simon Baker, the previous curator of Photography and International Art at the Tate in London, and currently the Director of Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris, as well as Pascal Beausse, the Head of Photographic Collections, Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, among other internationally recognized critics and gallerists. Congratulations to both of the Usui's for their amazing vision and creativity! #photobook #photobooks #AtelierVGI #Japanphotobook #fineartphotography #Japan #KG+ #Kyotography #kyotographie #femaleartist

Atelier VGI is very happy to announce that Eriko Kaniwa's "Texture of Absurdity" (which we published earlier this year) has just been awarded two silver prizes from the 2020 Le Prix de la Photographie de Paris ("PX3") competition, in the Fine Art Book category. Congratulations, Eriko! For a free catalog of Atelier VGI books, just email us at [email protected].

Our photobook artist Chika Usui (co-author with her husband Ichio of "Communities bound together by a common destiny") is currently exhibiting in Kyoto as a participant in KG+, the satellite event to the world-famous Kyotographie photo festival. If you're in the area, stop by. Chika has arranged for a special promotion this weekend at Kyoto's Daimaru department store for her exhibit of "Kakashi World," based on life-size "scarecrows" used to "repopulate" a remote village w...here the younger people have left for jobs in the cities, and the elderly residents are slowly passing away. This is a demographic phenomenon taking place through Japan. Her work is a poignant response to the growing loneliness of the elderly in Japan, especially in these rural areas. We're proud that this is the second year in a row Chika has been selected by world-famous photography experts such as Simon Baker (former photo curator of the Tate) to appear at KG+.

This was the gallery installation at KG+ 2019 in Kyoto which initially attracted our attention to Chika & Ichio Usui's work, "Communities bound together by a common destiny." After seeing this, and meeting the artists again at Foto Fever later in the year, after they won the Paris Gallery First Floor Award for this project, Atelier VGI proposed a collaboration with Chika & Ichio to publish our newest fine art photobook release of the same name. We're happy that Chika was in...vited back to KG+ this year as a solo artist for her work on a separate project, "The Beautiful Kakashi World." It is on display in Kyoto as part of the KG+ Select 10 exhibit until October 18, 2020. We're also proud to know that the judges for her selection included Simon Baker, the previous curator of Photography and International Art at the Tate in London, and currently the Director of Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris, as well as Pascal Beausse, the Head of Photographic Collections, Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris, among other internationally recognized critics and gallerists. Congratulations to both of the Usui's for their amazing vision and creativity! #photobook #photobooks #AtelierVGI #Japanphotobook #fineartphotography #Japan #KG+ #Kyotography #kyotographie #femaleartist

Atelier VGI is proud to announce its release of a fine art photobook by award-winning artists Chika & Ichio Usui, winners of Japan’s KG+ Selects competition and the Paris Gallery First Floor Award. A limited edition publication of only 100 copies. Communities bound together by a common destiny interrogates the concept of What does it mean to get married and become a new family, by referencing the history of Western Art and Drama as a satire of patriarchal ideologies, an...d by exploring issues that go beyond the normal construction of family and the institution of marriage. Order by clicking on the photo below. Email [email protected] for a free catalog of AVGI fine art photobooks. https://www.blurb.com/b/10302519-communities-bound-together #photobook #photobooks #AtelierVGI #Japanphotobook #fineartphotography #Japan #KG+ #Kyotography

Atelier VGI is very happy to announce that Eriko Kaniwa's "Texture of Absurdity" (which we published earlier this year) has just been awarded two silver prizes from the 2020 Le Prix de la Photographie de Paris ("PX3") competition, in the Fine Art Book category. Congratulations, Eriko! For a free catalog of Atelier VGI books, just email us at [email protected].

For many years, and culminating most recently in 2019, Hong Kong witnessed a series of protest activities which mobilized millions of participants in total, over weeks of marches and parades. Originally begun to protest a controversial proposed extradition law favoring the interests of Beijing over the civil liberties assumed by many Hong Kong residents to be enshrined in China’s one country, two systems promise to Great Britain during the 1997 handover, the protests now... bring into question existential issues confronting Hong Kong in both the short and long term: Can it remain an autonomous city-state, or will it become even more tightly integrated into the legal and political systems of mainland China, perhaps against its will? Almond Chu’s hauntingly prophetic images give rise to a futuristic vision of a mass-controlled and mass-oriented political order. It is a world in which anonymity is the only protection of the citizen from surveillance, even as this anonymity is steadily stripped away by artificial intelligence programs scouring petabytes and exabtyes and zettabytes and yottabytes of data, stored in ever-expanding data warehouses around the world, in both government and private hands. Who is doing this watching, and why, are questions not currently well-answered, or well-supervised. As you peruse the images in Parade, you should be reminded that one of the world’s most iconic photographs, Jeff Widener’s Tank Man at Tiananmen Square, June 5 1989, is almost unknown in mainland China, due to heavy state censorship. It is precisely the danger posed to totalitarian states by such photos as these which makes it essential to widely distribute them now, while we still have the freedom to do so. May Almond Chu’s warnings of these possible futures help us avert them. Purchasers are eligible to receive a complimentary limited edition 8x10 inch print of Curious Police (cover photo) dated, signed and numbered by Almond Chu. Only 100 of these prints exist, the same as the number of copies of the book. Contact AVGI for details at [email protected].