岡本明才Meisai Okamoto
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PRESS KIT

Press Kit

Material for exhibitions, interviews and publication, gathered in one place: profile, artist statement, exhibition history and works. The page is laid out so it can be printed and handed over as it is.

Profile

Name
Meisai Okamoto
Japanese
岡本明才
Born
1971
Based in
Kōchi, Japan
Practice
Working with pinhole cameras and the camera obscura since 2006

Biography

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Short (about 20 words)

A Kōchi-based artist working with pinhole cameras and the camera obscura.

Medium (about 60 words)

Meisai Okamoto (b. 1971, based in Kōchi, Japan) has worked with pinhole cameras and the camera obscura since 2006. He turns the bed of a light truck, rooms and existing openings in buildings into photographic apparatus, taking as his subject the conditions under which an image forms at all.

Long (about 120 words)

Meisai Okamoto (b. 1971, based in Kōchi, Japan) has worked with pinhole cameras and the camera obscura since 2006. Starting from the simplest principle — that light passing through a small aperture forms an image, with no lens involved — he has turned the bed of a light truck, rooms, a five-metre-square space and existing openings in buildings into photographic apparatus. His work makes visible the conditions under which an image comes into being: exposure time, the size of the aperture, the distance to the subject. In 2025 he held the solo exhibition Pinhole Camera Extended at kanzan gallery, Tokyo.

Reviews & coverage

External articles and exhibition records. The descriptions below are summaries by this website.

Artist Statement

Pinhole Camera Extended

We decide that “this is how the world is”, without ever doubting what we see.
But have we truly seen it? Governed only by the strength and direction of light,
are we not simply looking at what we have been shown?

A pinhole camera gives form to a single simple principle: that light travels straight.
There is no correction by a lens, no deliberate selection.
Light passes through a hole and binds the world together. That is the whole mechanism.

I extend this apparatus not to look at a landscape, but to make a place that asks
how the act of seeing itself shapes the world.

Where does the real end and the image begin?
Why does what should be visible pass by unseen?
Perhaps it is not that we cannot see it — only that we are not looking.

The world is always there.
The question is what, and how, we are each trying to see.

Making history

The development of the apparatus, in eight periods. The full text and the 16 production photographs are on the site's making-history page.

  1. 01Prologue42 sheets of photographic paper inside a camera the size of a light truck, exposed at staggered times — the first work.
  2. 02The Digital Room-Camera YearsRoom 38 of the Sawada Mansion covered in blackout cloth, the view outside projected onto the paper doors; exposure down to about 40 minutes.
  3. 03The Film Room-Camera YearsA switch to large-format film, with exposure extended from two hours to eight.
  4. 04The Digi-Cardboard YearsA smaller box and a shorter distance to the hole bring exposure down to two minutes, combining the weaknesses of pinhole and digital.
  5. 05The Years of Going EnormousFrom projecting the image onto something to projecting it onto the landscape itself; the cameras grow enormous.
  6. 06A Message from a PredecessorA camera made from the hole in the cover of a Nobuo Yamanaka catalogue; the hole itself enters the image.
  7. 07The Bicycle-Camera YearsTo photograph the view and the hole at once, a large, heavy camera is moved on a bicycle.
  8. 08The Big Pinhole YearsA doorway acts as the pinhole, and the building opposite and the sky appear on the floor.
See the making-history page

Solo Exhibitions

Listed as year, title, venue.

  1. 2025Pinhole Camera Extendedkanzan gallery, Tokyo
  2. 2018Camera Obscura ExhibitionTAO gallery, Kochi
  3. 2017A 3-DAY BUILDING PHOTO EXHIBITIONSouth harimaya Building, Kochi
  4. 2015CLEARSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  5. 2014THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LIGHT NEXT TO THE DARKSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  6. 2014IN THE PINHOLEBook & Gallery POPOTAME, Tokyo
  7. 2013Sketch of the SunSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  8. 2013Sketch of the SunIse Cultural Foundation, New York
  9. 2012CAMERAShinjyuku Ophthalmologist Gallery, Tokyo
  10. 2012CAMERASawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  11. 2011heuristicSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  12. 2010Platonic IdealismSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  13. 2009vu ja deGallery Graffiti, Kochi
  14. 2008camera to cameraBook & Gallery POPOTAME, Tokyo
  15. 2006Photo XSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  16. 2006Times CorridorSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi

Group Exhibitions and Other Activities

  1. 2021showcase #9 ‘visions in and out’ curated by minoru shimizueN arts, Kyoto
  2. 2019InoBiennalIno City, Kochi
  3. 2019Kami Art Annual vol.7Kami Museum of Art, Kochi
  4. 2019Azoun SnapGALLERY E, Kochi
  5. 2018echo Resonance ReverberationSantana Gallery, Ehime
  6. 2017EYE Meisai Okamoto≒Chinatu KadowakiGALLERY E, Kochi
  7. 2017INOB OrderIno City, Kochi
  8. 2016ENGallery VERKLIGHETEN, Sweden Umeå
  9. 2016Sawans11Sawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  10. 2016「　　　」Surprise ShowSawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  11. 2016EN ARTIST IN RESIDENCESawada Mansion Gallery room38, Kochi
  12. 2016ONAEBA VOL.17KIITO, Kobe
  13. 2014ONAEBA VOL.15Kyocera Dome, Osaka
  14. 2014Machi to Sora Art FestivalEast Iya Ochiai, Tokushima
  15. 2014Green RunGallery Graffiti, Kochi
  16. 2013Art Picnic Vol.3 My Home Your HomeAshiya City Museum of Art and History
  17. 2013Machi to Sora Art FestivalAwaikeda, Tokushima
  18. 2012Garaku Project Vol.3Kochi City Culture Plaza Cul-Port, Kochi
  19. 2012INOB Order2.0Ino City, Kochi
  20. 2012Renovation ExhibitionWarakon Museum, Kochi
  21. 2011Sawada Mansion Gallery Tokyo ExhibitionBook & Gallery POPOTAME, Tokyo
  22. 2009Self-sufficient ArtHiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
  23. 2009FOTO RESIDENTSTOTEM POLE PHOTO GALLERY, Tokyo
  24. 2008MAXIMUMGallery Sante, Kochi
  25. 2007Garaku Project Vol.1Kochi City Culture Plaza Cul-Port, Kochi
  26. 2007PHOTO EXHIBITION LOVE WALLGallery Graffiti, Kochi
  27. 2006Creators File vol.5Slogadh463 Gallery, Okayama
  28. 2006Sound and PicturesGallery Faust, Kochi
  29. 2005Kochi Legacy Tokyo ExhibitionBook & Gallery POPOTAME, Tokyo
  30. 2005√2 Meisai Okamoto × Shingai MakotoGallery Graffiti, Kochi
  31. 2005Artist Book ExhibitionGallery nBox, Kochi
  32. 2005時の旅人展Gallery nBox, Kochi
  33. 2004Kochi Legacy ExhibitionGallery Graffiti, Kochi

Work Series

Full details and all images for each series are on the work pages of this site.

  1. 2024穴の大きさによって変化する風景2 published imagesView the work page
  2. 2024部屋に空をうつす3 published imagesView the work page
  3. 2021Fading Light2 published imagesView the work page
  4. 2020THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LIGHT NEXT TO THE DARK sakura2 published imagesView the work page
  5. 2017–2020CAMERA OBSCURA12 published imagesView the work page
  6. 2018umi3 published imagesView the work page
  7. 2017COLOR3 published imagesView the work page
  8. 2017BUILDING PHOTO4 published imagesView the work page
  9. 2016Umeå sun12 published imagesView the work page
  10. 2016perspective3 published imagesView the work page
  11. 2014–2015IN THE PINHOLE4 published imagesView the work page
  12. 2014THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LIGHT NEXT TO THE DARK24 published imagesView the work page
  13. 2013祖谷の太陽3 published imagesView the work page
  14. 2013Nobuo Yamanaka I respect1 published imagesView the work page
  15. 2013SKETCH OF SUN4 published imagesView the work page
  16. 2013sea&sky1 published imagesView the work page
  17. 2012CAMERA11 published imagesView the work page
  18. 2011yaminoututu7 published imagesView the work page
  19. 2011heuristic2 published imagesView the work page
  20. 2009vujade4 published imagesView the work page
  21. 2009hikari20 published imagesView the work page
  22. 2008CAMERA TO CAMERA6 published imagesView the work page
  23. 2006時の回廊1 published imagesView the work page

About the images

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Contact

For exhibitions, interviews, publication or image requests, please use the contact page.

Official site
https://meisaiokamoto.com/
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