Saori Orita Photo Exhibition “Exist” May 23 (Sat) – June 14 (Sun), 2026
At 写真企画室ホトリ Gallery FOTORI, we are pleased to present “Exist,” a solo exhibition by the gallery director, Saori Orita, from May 23 (Sat) through June 14 (Sun), 2026.
For nearly ten years, Orita has continued to climb and photograph mountains. As a sequel to her September 2023 exhibition “I’m here.”, this presentation features works printed entirely through traditional silver gelatin processes. Both monochrome and color works will be exhibited across the gallery’s two levels—the first floor and the mezzanine.
The first half of the exhibition will focus primarily on black-and-white works, while the second half will center on color. Although the installations on the first floor and mezzanine will be exchanged between the two periods—allowing visitors to view both monochrome and color works at any time—the total number of works will differ between the first and second halves due to variations in exhibition space.
To commemorate the exhibition, two versions of the photobook Exist—one monochrome and one color—will be produced and released simultaneously.
I see in the mountains a life that stretches into eternity.
The mountain itself is the very activity of the Earth’s life. Even a young mountain possesses tens of thousands of years of life; an ancient one holds hundreds of millions to billions of years. Such spans may well be called eternal.
After experiencing disease, I came to love the mountains, and it has been nearly ten years since I began climbing them. It has been nearly ten years since I began climbing them. The mountains are the place where I can feel, with intensity, the fact of my own existence. I have continued to climb because I wanted to engrave the experience of being alive into my body and mind.
In 2025, a certain shock struck me. That moment became a catalyst, accelerating my commitment to fixing the mountains in silver gelatin prints. By burning the forms of the mountains onto silver, I realized that I was also layering proof of my own presence there.
The mountains do not change. They exist with indifference, unconcerned with me. By imprinting mountains—bearers of eternal life—onto silver, I am imprinting my own existence, my own life.
