Will Matsuda: Kiku #1, 2021

Taking inspiration from a Japanese card game and his own family history, Will Matsuda’s photographs of the Pacific Northwest imagine the complexity—and possibility—of American landscapes. This image is from his series Hanafuda (2020-21), which is featured in the Aperture issue #246, “Celebrations.”

Lucy Ives writes of this body of work, “Hanafuda, or ‘flower cards,’ are a Japanese style of playing card developed from Portuguese decks that entered the Asian nation in the seventeenth century. Matsuda's work in this series is, in part, derived from hanafuda illustrations. He sometimes titles the photographs after the plants that correspond to the suits—susuki (grass), kiku (chrysanthemum), ume (plum blossom)—or after special cards that bear figures, such as the phoenix.” The cards are organized into twelve suits corresponding to the twelve months of the year, with images related to landscapes, flora, and fauna printed primarily in black, red, and white. Ives continues, “Yet the cards’ calendrical structure does not absolutely determine the content of Matsuda’s images, which are rather loosely inspired by memories of time spent with family and questions related to place.”

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