Japanese photographer Keiko Goto will show her images of the Russian island of Sakhalin at Melbourne’s Colour Factory Gallery throughout October.
Japanese photographer Keiko Goto will be exhibiting her hand-printed silver gelatin photographs of the Russian island of Sakhalin at Melbourne’s Colour Factory Gallery this October. Goto photographed the wild and isolated Sakhalin, situated just 42km north of the northern-most Japanese island of Hokkaido. Sakhalin has a complicated history of ownership and has been occupied by Russia since the end of World War II.
With a background of railways, coalmines and paper mills, the recent foreign investment in natural gas projects has brought the island into prominence once again. Sakhalin is a large and very sparsely populated island which has been the centre of a long power struggle between Russia and Japan over control of its large oil and gas resources. While it has few tourists, the emergence of the energy business has encouraged the growth of some hotels for foreign workers.
Using a 1938 Leica given to her by her father at birth, Goto spent four years photographing the seasonal shifts which alter the island dramatically. The rugged climate heavily influences the lifestyle of the island’s people and its winters are extremely harsh.
Says Goto, “You start to see mushrooms at markets and this is a sure sign of autumn arriving. The talk of the town is about when salmon will start coming up the rivers. People dig up the potatoes and close their villas ready for the long months of snow. Gradually the sky starts to turn dark grey, covering everything with snow and ice for the next four to five months.” Goto’s images are honest yet stark depictions of the harsh realities of life in this isolated outpost of humanity. An unfamiliar and hard place, it is nonetheless photographed respectfully.
The Sakhalin exhibition will run from October 1 through to October 31 at the Colour Factory Gallery, 409-429 Gore St, Fitzroy, in inner city Melbourne. Contact the gallery at ph: (03) 9419 8756 or www.colourfactory.com.au.
The gallery is open on Monday to Friday from 11am to 5pm, and on Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm.
Japanese photographer Keiko Goto spent a number of years recording the life of local inhabitants on the isolated Russian island of Sakhalin.
