Keiko Goto - 'Zen in 35mm'

Wednesday 7 November  - Sunday 2 December 2018

"Zen is hard to describe in words. It needs to be experienced. Zen says everything we do is the training - including cleaning, eating, bathing and so on. Zen requires intense meditation but when it is done properly, you will be able to gain total freedom from logical thinking that ties us down. The way I understand Zen is that it teaches you how to live your life peacefully and happily.

Normally the inside of Zen monks’ lives are not to be photographed except only in the very special cases. The prestigious Kichijyoji Temple in Tokyo, dating back 350 years, is a part of the Soudou Shu school of Buddhism. I have been taking calligraphy lessons with the monks at this temple for over 10 years and was very honoured to be given this special permission to take photographs of a Zen monk’s life inside this temple. Because this monk knows me well, he was totally at ease in his own world during the photo shoots.

I am basically an analogue photographer using 35mm B&W film in Leica IIIb (manufactured in 1938) and handprint my own photographs in a darkroom to archival silver gelatine paper. For this particular exhibition, I have also included a selection of platinum prints which use a digital camera but are hand printed using platinum and palladium."

Keiko Goto, November 2018

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