“pool”
I mistook the moon in a photograph for the sun. And when I realized it was not the sun but the moon, a hazy vision—lit by both sunlight and moonlight at once—came to me. Cyanotype, a classic photographic technique, blue and beautiful, was born in 19th-century Britain. With this early method,
I decided to capture images by moonlight, and expose them under sunrays.
As the full moon approached and the nights grew brighter, I ventured out to places untouched by artificial light. I set up a tripod, mounted a 6×9 camera loaded with negative film, opened the shutter, and exposed it for a few tens of seconds or minutes—under the glow of the moon. I scanned the developed film, reversed the image, and output it as a digital negative. After laying it over washi-paper brushed with cyanotype solution and leaving it to dry, it is put between two glass plates and exposed to the sun. The surface of the paper, bathed in sunlight, shifted in color—yellow to green, blue, gold, and finally with a slight hint of pink. When the reaction was complete, I immersed it in water, and washed it slowly, over the course of half a day. The finished image reveals a blue landscape soaked in both moonlight and sunlight. The moon (“月”) and the sun (“日”), together they are tsukihi (“月日”)—means time in Japanese. The moon rises and sets. The sun rises and sets. If that repetition defines time, then in a photograph where the moon and the sun neither appear nor disappear, time does not exist. It is time itself, and yet timeless. A photograph filled with, but free of time.
— Cozue Takagi

TARO NASU is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Cozue Takagi, opening on May 16, 2025.

Takagi has consistently sought new approaches to the concept of photography, carefully selecting methods and materials to suit each inquiry. In this latest series, she turns to cyanotype—a photographic printing technique developed in the 19th century, commonly known as blueprint. Cyanotypes are created by exposing paper coated with a photosensitive solution to ultraviolet light, typically sunlight, to develop an image. For this project, however, Takagi has chosen an unconventional approach. Rather than using the sun to expose the image, she photographs scenes illuminated by moonlight, then prints the resulting images onto digital negatives. These are layered onto cyanotype paper and exposed again—this time to sunlight. In doing so, she weaves together two temporal strands: night and day, moon and sun. This dual exposure process reflects Takagi’s ongoing interest in the transformation of images, and how meaning shifts through the act of transformation itself. It has been about six years since her last solo exhibition at TARO NASU, and this time she is bringing us a total of 36 works. Through these photographs—blue landscapes where time appears to surface from within nocturnal scenes—she invites us to consider a different perspective of photography: one that does not merely document “here and now” but rather reveals another way of presence.

Coinciding with the exhibition, Takagi’s new photobook pool, including works from the show, will be published by AKAAKA Art Publishing.
The book will be available at bookstores across Japan and on AKAAKA’s official website.

Cozue Takagi — pool
Format: Modified A5 / 112 pages / Hardcover
Estimated Price: ¥4,950 (tax included)
Publisher: AKAAKA Art Publishing
http://www.akaaka.com/