Sandra Guldemann Duchatellier takes us to Okura Hotel
TOKYO Photographer Sandra Guldemann Duchatellier takes us on a journey not only to Tokyo, Japan but also on a journey in the time – to a location that will never be seen the way she saw and experienced it. She invites us with her poetic visual essay to the iconic Okura Hotel, the way it existed before its closing for renovations.
As Sandra Guldemann Duchatellier says “Hotel Okura in Tokyo is more than a hotel. It is a symbol of Japan’s post-war economic revitalisation. It has been designed by architect Yoshiro Taniguchi who integrated an unique modern design with the traditional colours, shapes and crafts of Japan.
When it was reported at the beginning of 2015 that the Okura Hotel would be redeveloped for the 2020 Olympics, I decided to go several times there and shoot some last moments of people silhouettes interacting with this very special architecture and patterns. I tried with those images, to preserve the interior of the Okura but also to evoke a sense of contemplation and loneliness. The historic aisle of the hotel has now been demolished and with the tone of these images, I hope to give a poetic and graphic testimony of something that is no longer as it was.”
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