2 minute read
Alex de Pase
A L E X D E P A S E
Advertisement
E D I T O R ' S P I C K : B E S T M E N ' S S H O E C O L L E C T I O N , P F W A / W 2 0 2 2
L O O K I N G A T P A R I S
T H A D D E U S R O H A C G A L L E R Y R E F L E C T S O N T H E C I T Y O F L I G H T T H R O U G H T H E
L E N S O F Y O S H I T A K A T A
The A/W 2022 season saw a number of excellent fashion-week adjacent events at Parisian art galleries; the most poignant, and memorable, was the opening of a beautifully-curated Yoshi Takata exhibition at the Thaddeus Rohac Gallery. The Japanese-born Takata spent the better part of her life and career in Paris and became intimately entwined with the nuanced and often contrasting rhythms of life in the French capital. Takata designed a unique niche as a humanist fashion photographer who portrayed the lifestyles of both wealthy bon vivants and blue collar workers (often in the same camera frame) with eloquence and dignity. The Rohac exhibition showcased a representative crosssection of this photography, selecting photos that captured the most fundamental human emotions and impulses in a form paradoxically both raw and structured. The exhibition felt particularly powerful in the wake of Covid, a crisis which inspired nostalgia for past eras and reflection on the importance of human connection. Takata captured ephemeral moments of such connection that we often take for granted but that remain essential to the fabric of our lives: a man catching a woman’s eye in a restaurant, a group of nuns taking solace in each other at a time of mourning, workers in a market collaborating to carry their goods.
The Takata exhibition was entitled “Looking at Paris, ” an interesting turn of phrase given its almost-voyeuristic connotations. Takata may have been looking at Paris, but it was from an insider’s perspective: that of one with a profound love and understanding of the city she adopted as home. And while her work may recall wistfulness for the bygone post-war era, it also transcends time: the interactions she depicted on the Parisian streets are the same ones we experience today.
