We talked with Keigo Wezel, who received the Vision Grant, awarded to an artist with a unique perspective and a strong artistic voice.
Keigo Wezel is a Japan born photographer and artist. He graduated from Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and Parsons in New York. He often explores the relationship between humans and nature in his work, as well as his own psyche and culture.
Wezel’s project Sleepwalking recreates the state of daydreaming through surreal imagery. With a thoughtful use of color, Wezel constructs a visual world that feels both alienating and intensely sensorial, like a vivid dream uncomfortably close to reality. The project alternates between details of everyday life—imbued with a surreal, universal quality—and delicate, melancholic landscapes alongside portraits of figures suspended in time, inhabiting their own oneiric world. Sleepwalking explores the narrow yet profound space between the vigilant awareness of wakefulness and the surrender to the unknown feelings and sensations of sleep.
How did you first approach photography?
My mother has been collecting Vogue magazines since I was a child, so I was always surrounded by magazines and that slowly made me curious about photography.
I got my first film camera when I was a teenager, and started to plan photoshoots with my friends and sister. I have always been interested in anything visual as a form of expression which led me to study fashion in New York and later, photography in Antwerp.
You’ve described yourself as a daydreamer—how does this influence your photographs? Do you build and visualize them beforehand, or capture spontaneous moments?
Depends on the photos, but normally I am distracted by many things. I focus on things around me that I am not supposed to and I take pictures from a perspective that elevates the visual story to a dreamlike experience. My photos from Sleepwalking are spontaneous, and coincidence is very important to keep my curiosity alive and to look out for narratives. This same coincidence is why I shoot on film, so certain things stay out of my control.
Colour plays a central role in your images. How do you choose and use it in your work?
It is very instinctive, I am captured by colors that happen to appear around me. Then, whether it is by working with the negative, expired film or through Photoshop, I bring out the color to elevate the images to something new.
How has your place of origin shaped your way of seeing and making photographs?
Japan is a visually charged country. There is such rich visual fluidity in design and visual landscape, I am always looking to capture the spaces in between, the objects that feel out of place. I attach a story, a new reality through photography. I wonder, what is this? Why is this here? It is almost like a huge playground for humans, playing with random toys that don t have a purpose or a meaning, I basically do the same with the camera.
Also in Japan there is a strong connection and respect towards nature, people in Japan appreciate the ephemerality of it. I believe this strong connection that I grew up with has made me look at nature as a fragile yet dominant presence. Through my pictures, I want to give the viewer a space to reflect on this.
What projects are you currently working on, or planning for the future?
Sleepwalking remains an ongoing project. However, on the side, I’m also exploring mixing photography and painting. I’m working on a project about windows across different countries. Windows reveal differences in culture and the way people live. I still maintain a dreamlike visual, I choose windows and elevate them to an abstract form, as if it was a painting.
