Project Statement:
I am an orchardist. I have endeavored to create an artistic record as a photograph of fruit that I have grown in its “most visually beautiful form prior to being harvested.” My artwork is similar to “Botanical Art,” seeking to depict both precision and a level of detail, combined with aesthetic beauty. Multiple fruits ripen in orchards. However, not all fruit can be considered an object of beauty, in terms of its shape or leaf distribution. Daily tending of plants, which is done all year round, as well as weather conditions that change on a yearly basis, result in annual variations in the final quality of products.
Artist Bio:
Masumi Shiohara was born in 1974 in Nagano, Japan. He graduated from the department of physics at the faculty of science in Toyama University. He worked at a micro-machining company as a development engineer. After leaving the company, he took over the management of the family orchard from his parents and is now running the farm. While growing fruit here he became interested in capturing them into works of photographic art, a skill which he picked up by himself. The inspiration to capture these photographically originally came when he was requested to supply fruit on a branch to a botanical artist – since then he has continued producing photographic art works of fruit on a branch. He is printing ‘the works like botanical art with white back ground’ on vellum of genuine parchment, and ‘the works with a black background’ on glossy paper. From now on, he is keen to present works with the theme of the importance and value of food, focusing on subjects such as the growth of fruit throughout the year and records of nameless fruits which are omitted in the selective breeding process of fruits, another line of work he is involved in.
