ZEN FOTO GALLERY

Zen Foto Gallery is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of photographs by Masayuki Nakaya, from September 26th to October 13th. This is Nakaya's second solo exhibition, four years since “Nekopathy”, his work photographing his beloved family and cats inside their apartment in Tokyo.

For this new exhibition Nakaya started work over a decade ago in 2005.
Is running into a cat in this vast expanse of land, a coincidence or inevitable? Walking in towns, he stops, waits and captures the scene. Nakaya has continued this way of photographing for a long period of time.

At first I approached closer to the cats. At some point, however, I felt something wrong and kept my distance. After that the distance became greater and greater. I frequently visited sites where cats might be, looking for their paths. Sometimes I waited forever, like a fisherman.
And it has been ten years.

As he stepped beyond the balcony of his apartment into the outer world, the landscape of a familiar city gradually transforms itself into something else.
A slope behind a park
A back street in Golden Gai with many customers
An embankment overgrown with weeds
A fork in a road
A busy hot spring resort
A hidden cemetery in the midst of the metropolis A lonely road
Cats would somehow appear in an obscure corner of such landscapes.
Cats take a nap, walk around, or chase something.
They will show a noble posture, then immediately hide or stare hard at us.
We hear their cries as if they are talking to someone; their lives are just like ours. The world extends further and further as we gaze out upon the scenery ahead of us. Our gaze will touch an object, then reflect and project back onto us. Nakaya stands stationary in this landscape.

Through publishing these photographs, I look forward to a release from my enchantment with cats.

“Neko yo sayonara” (Farewell, cats!)