“Whether through photography or painting, ultimately, we are obliged to search within a subject for truth.”

A boundary between photography and painting is really ambiguous for me. As we know that Johannes Vermeer used the camera obscura in order to produce his paintings back in 17th century, photography and painting have long been closely related and influenced each other.
Vis-à-vis the thousands―we might even say tens of thousands―of years of painting history, photographic history is but 200 years old. And yet, you can consider photographic history in the same context as the history of the discovery of photosensitive materials. Assuming that photography is an expression born of our gazing at the world, then I believe that photography should be included in the long history of painting.

Hisaji Hara is a photographer based in Tokyo, Japan.
To view more of Hisaji Hara's work, please visit his website.


A study of “The Happy Days” 2009



A study of the “Girl at a Window” 2009



A study of the “But it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors” 2010



A study of “The passage du Commerce-Saint-Andre” 2009



A study of the “Portrait of Thérèse” 2009



A study of “The King of Cats” (self-portrait) 2009



A study of “The Victim” 2009



A study of the “Thérèse” 2010



A study of “The Mountain” 2010



A study of “The Happy Days” 2009



A study of “The Room” 2009



A study of the “Because Cathy taught him what she learnt” 2010



A study of the “Katia Reading” 2009



A study of “The Street” 2009



A study of the “Colette in Profile” 2009