What's the Yellow Room and how did you discover the place?Yellow
room is a car-painting garage. I discovered the place when I was
studying photography in college. I remember it was night-time when I
first saw it, so I went back there on the next day. I'm glad it’s still
there, and I go back there from time to time - it’s an on-going project.
You started this series 6 years ago and are still exploring the room. How does this location respond to your artistic concerns?This
project is a documentation of timelessness. Time is always an important
subject in my photography, so I am keen to document the place by
focusing on things that stay the same rather than things that change
with time. These two photographs were taken 3 years apart, for instance.
When I return to the garage after a while, I always find new machines
and tools. It’s easy for people to notice the change, but most of the
things stay the same: stains on the wall, the colours of the room and so
on. By photographing this room, I want to visualize matter in very subtle ways.
You mainly work with a 6x6 square-format camera. What do you like about this format? How does it affect your compositions?6x6
has always been my favourite format. I do shoot with other formats, of
course, but for most of my work, this format fits very well.
I
believe with this format, your eyes move around in the picture in a
repetitive manner and come back to the centre in the end. I feel this is
a very stable and balanced format for me.
There is an
ethereal quality, a beautiful lightness and softness that come across in
your work - whether still life, landscape, fashion, or personal
abstract research. Would you agree that your aesthetics are very much in
line with Japanese photographic traditions, even though you have mainly
studied and worked in the United States?I agree: my work has a
strong visual association with my Japanese background, especially in my
response to colour and composition.
I developed my approach outside
my home country, so this is always very fascinating to hear. You would
be surprised at how few are taking this approach in Japan itself.
Limited edition, numbered and signed.
The colour palette chosen by Naho Kubota, a Japanese photographer based in New York, is gentle, favouring pastel colours. Her world seems to float slightly above our own, in a sort of fluffy mist, apparently unfettered by any form of gravity. She applies the same delicate method to the objects of her contemplation, be they fragile flowers or the American West’s desert landscapes, airy seaside froth or garage walls splattered with paint. A form of weightless poetry pervades her images. 
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