Trace Elements (2008)

Number of works: 99; Size of work: 28.0 x 18.7 cm (11.02 x 7.36 inch); Technique: gelatin-silver print and Type C print; All photographs are mounted onto the Alpolic (2 mm). Production year: 2008

with captioning booklet

In 1973, Furuya boarded the Trans - Siberian railway and headed for Europe. After settling in Graz, he began taking photographs depicting people's inner psychological states and the unseen borders existing in a society that was still under tight state control. Since 1985, when his wife Christine took her own life, Furuya has made several books from the photos he had taken of her. Each is called Mémoires, and their production sees him go through a process of editing and reediting, looking over the photos again and again, reading and rereading them for a sense of meaning and time. A total of 99 works are shown, including the series "State Border," "Limes: Images of the Wall Seen from East Berlin,'' ''Gravitation,'' portraits of Christine and other works not previously exhibited. This grand and detailed display is an exploration of that which resides between photographic regression and time and at the border of personal and public memory.

From the exhibition catalogue "Trace Elements: spirit and memory in Japanese and Australian photomedia'', 2008