Tomio Seike

Seike is primarily known for his black and white photographs handprinted in Japan, though he has also made landscapes in colour. His sensitive play on light and composition adds a serenity to his images which defines his style and adds a beauty to scenes of everyday life. Tomio Seike remains one of Hamiltons Gallery’s longest standing represented artists.

 

 

<span class="title">Waterscape #24<span class="title_comma">, </span></span><span class="year">2002</span>
<span class="title">Waterscape #13<span class="title_comma">, </span></span><span class="year">1998</span>
<span class="title">Waterscape #3<span class="title_comma">, </span></span><span class="year">1996</span>
Tomio Seike
Waterscape #24, 2002
Toned gelatin silver print
4 3/8 x 7 1/8 in.
Edition of 30
© Tomio Seike

On New Year’s Day 1996, Tomio Seike was staying in Bath, Somerset with his wife when he came across an intriguing postcard showing a canal. Out of curiosity he set out to find it.

 

It was a damp and very foggy day and Seike has always had an aversion to photographing in foggy conditions, but, in spite of this and the prevailing holiday mood, he was captivated by what he discovered – the play of fog and damp on the landscape - and spontaneously captured the moment with his camera. 

 

When he later printed the image, he was so enthusiastic and mesmerised with the result that what could have been considered as a one-off, a fateful accident, had this turned into the beginning of his Waterscapes series.