“Offerings” by Kenta Nakamura
“I took the photos for “Offerings” in made-up, ceremonial settings. Ceremonial rites have existed before we any of us were born, and yet we participate in them without question."
“Offerings,” a project from Kenta Nakamura, a portrait, documentary, contemporary photographer based in Fukuoka and Tokyo, Japan. His work explores how our society is constructed around ceremonies, traditions and rituals. How deep rooted they are in us and "How God become part of our daily lives?," as Kenta questioned.
He mixes different styles of photography whether it’d be a documentary style, street snaps or a studio set-up to highlight the ambiguity and jerk the audience to participate in analyzing and questioning the subject matter. Not to just take it in as it is, just like how we accept these social constructs without any doubt, which I think is a very clever move. His photos are very ironic, almost like a teasing of the idea of how belief system works. “I thought it would be funny if someone happened to see these pictures in 100 or 200 years — would they just believe what they see? Or would they dig a little deeper, just to discover that it’s fabricated?”
