In partnership with the Howard Greenberg Gallery, the Galerie In Camera will present through July 14 and from September 4 to 15, 2012, a selection of photographs by Kenro Izu, taken from his series Sacred Places.
Kenro Izu is a Japanese photographer. Born in Tokyo in 1949, he has lived in New York since 1974. During a trip to Egypt in that same year, his encounter with the Great Pyramid of Giza led him to take an interest in sacred places across the world. This search brought him to the United States, South America (Mexico, Peru, Chile) and Europe (England, Scotland, France).
In 1993, during a visit to Angkor, he discovered a kind of harmony between the monuments, temples and the way they were being overtaken by the jungle. He then decided to photograph other sacred sites in Asia and the Middle East, which led him in turn to Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, China, Indonesia, India, Syria and Jordan. "What attracts me is the relationship I have with the stone monument. I am fascinated by the mystery of life and death, and there is an element of mystery in these stones.”
To best capture these places and their distinctive atmosphere, Izu employs a specially modified Deardoff that uses 35.56 x 50.80 cm negatives. He produces his own prints using a palladium-platinum process, which is especially prized by museum curators and collectors for its range of tone, not to mention its longevity.
Currently, Kenro Izu is working on a new project, India Sacred Within, a photographic study of the spirit of India, through its culture, its religions, the diversity of its people and its landscapes.
In Cambodia in 1995, Izu found himself drawn toward the child victims of landmines, and those died because of a lack of medical care. He decided to open a volunteer children’s hospital in Siem Reap, and 1999 he founded a non-profit organization, Friends Without a Border. In the same a year a pediatric hospital opened in Angkor. Today it has fifty beds and has cared for more than 65,000 sick children.
A portion of the proceeds from prints sold at this exhibition will be donated to Friends Without a Border.

Bernard PERRINE
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Exhibition
Kenro Izu - "Sacred Places"
Until september 15th, 2012
(Closed - 07/13 - 09/04)
Galerie in camera
21 rue Las Cases
75007 Paris - France