Emily Allchurch’s ‘Tokyo Story’ re-creates ten of the impressive works of Hiroshige’s imagery, These 10 digital collages bring to life the two dimensional nature of woodblock printing into the real world through the imaginary world reconstructed by assembling countless objects and details to replicate and accentuate each image to its optimum level.

By enhancing the images through photography, the contemporary social narrative of Tokyo today is revealed in a visually recognizable and palpable form. This constructed ‘reality’ is assumed by the viewer instantly to be a real time and place despite many clues to the contrary. With or without knowledge of Hiroshige’s original prints, Tokyo Story can be taken at face value, slowly revealing its stories within stories upon closer inspection. Using many cultural and symbolic references Allchurch imbues her photographs with many facets beyond the aesthetic beauty she creates.

Hiroshige’s work is poised at a time of great upheaval, as traditional Japan was under the threat of Western Imperialism. The momentous changes of the time are transpired through Allchurch’s photographs as contemporary photographs of Tokyo reveal the inverse, as the past is still permeates the present.

Emily Allchurch is a British artist, living and working in London. She completed an MA at the Royal College of Art in London in 1999.

Until May 7
Diemar/Noble Photography
66/67 Wells Street
London
W1P 3PY