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Keiichi Tahara Born 1951 Keiichi Tahara is a Japanese photographer who is renowned for his exploration of light through photography, installation and conceptual art. Born on 20 August 1951 in Kyoto, Japan, Tahara learnt about photography as a child from his grandfather, who was a professional photographer. Tahara tells of how he was travelling in France in 1972 with a theatre troupe as a lighting technician when he encountered a sharp, bright light in an attic space. Not used to finding such a quality of light in Japan, he was inspired and spent the next thirty years in Paris, practicing as a photographer. Tahara's first series, Ville (1973-6) concerned the light in Paris, which he considered particular to the city. This was followed by Fênetre (1973-80) for which he won the Best New Photographer Award at Les Rencontres d'Arles. Through the 1990s, Tahara's work developed to include sculpture and urban light installation. His light sculpture, Garden of Light (1989) in Eniwa, Hokkaido, explores the connection between light and sound as it responds to music. In 1993 his installation in the moat of the Castle of Angers, Fighting the Dragon, was the first light sculpture in France. Despite the breadth of Tahara's practice, it always centres on the interrelation of light and solid object. As the famed French theorist, Félix Guattari, says in his essay 'Les machinations de lumière de Keiichi Tahara', 'no matter what means of expression Keiichi Tahara appropriates in his works, they are always premised on their reconstruction as light and shadow… these works are constantly inflected as they perennially shift and transform'. Tahara's light sculptures are installed at permanent locations worldwide but his work has also been extensively exhibited by museums. In 1993 he was made a Chevalier of the French Order of the Arts and Letters. A major retrospective, Keiichi Tahara 'Sculpteur de lumière', was held at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, in 2014.