Participation from the 12th of May till the 12th of July 2014
“The image at which you’re looking is your alter ego, while it’s also the alter ego of the audience.’
Haruna Kawanishi
Haruna Kawanishi is a photographer from Tokyo, who came to the Netherlands to photograph local dancers. During her stay at Deshima Air, Kawanishi did at least four projects. The first project “Night Tweet” she photographed the dancers: Caroline, Jenia, Malica and Saara for this series and were taken in the forest. Haruna especially connected with Swedish dancer Caroline Lundblad, whom is better known as Frauke (www.frauke.se) with whom she also did a still shooting at Caroline’s theatre. They also did a performance together at the 4bid gallery during the Minikunstfestival and the photos that were taken during her stay won an honourable mention at the International Photography Awards 2014 in Los Angeles, U.S.A. Lastly she documented the Nieuwmarkt’s farmers market with her pictures every Saturday.
Haruna is also an active aikido practitioner. This allows her to know a lot about body movements and gravity. One of the main differences she experienced between western and Japanese dancers, is the way they centre the gravity. Japanese dancers centre the gravity of their bodies in the abdominal area, whereas, western dancers (especially ballet dancers) have the tendency to centre their gravity in their chest area.
‘Haruna has managed to realize a lot of different projects during her short stay. Her photographic work got enriched through new contacts, which continued after her residency at Deshima AIR’
Ellie Duinker, photographer and textile designer
Website: http://www.haruna-kawanishi.com/