My name is AI TERADA and I am a photographer. This photo is "xiaolong pi" (小籠ぱい), a work I took for the collective exhibition "pi" held recently at Shibuya Art Gallery in September 2022. (The theme of "pi" was "breast", so I put my own image into it. For me, "breast" is something fantastic and dreamy that makes you forget reality and leads you to a dream world, and it is also a sacred part that nurtures babies. It is soft to the touch and round. It is a place to return to and gently embrace. This nuance is expressed by the overall milky white skintone. The ceramic-like or science fiction-inspired smooth skin is also an obsession for this unrealistic effect, and was done by a hair and makeup artist. (Almost no photoshop processing was used.) She has been shooting nude works depicting the affinity between women and food (especially fruit) for some time as part of the "Mesu Exhibition" project, and this work is in the same vein. This work was inspired by a Mentaiko (spicy cod roe) flavored parcel that I saw at a Chinese restaurant (laugh). Myself, I really like having women as my subjects. In a world that is not always beautiful, the women in front of me feel like goddesses at the moment when I output and photograph the view of the world I envision. It is a sanctuary for me. I hope that the love I feel for my work will reach the viewers as well.
