Floating World series

Allusions to poems by Japanese women of the 7th—20th Centuries

While rummaging through a used book store in Princeton, New Jersey, I discovered a volume of haiku and tanka translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi in 1977. The poems were by Japanese women from the 7th through the 20th centuries and represent all the major styles during this period—from the Classical to Contemporary schools. I was immediately drawn to the poems, and as I read them—so allusive and rich in imagery—I knew that I wanted to make their photographic equivalents.

The Floating World refers to the conception of a world as evanescent, impermanent, of fleeting beauty and divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world. For the poets in this volume (whose names are calligraphed in each image) that world centered on love—longing for love and the beloved, mourning lost love, pondering its mystery. The beauty of the natural world—its flowers, landscape, the moon, and the changing seasons—serves as the primary metaphor.

This series is available in three sizes and is printed using archival Epson Ultrachrome pigment inks on uncoated Kozo (mulberry) paper handmade in Japan.

The calligraphy is by Richard Man.

Showing 1–16 of 25 results

BRIGITTE CARNOCHAN. Floating World – A Limited Edition Book
Summer Moon
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A Bird Comes
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Send a Message
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Season of Weariness
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Flower of Forgetfulness
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Rouged Lips
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Spring Night
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Splitting Open
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Butterflies Tell Me
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Pillow of Sickness
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Sorrow
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Queen of the Summer Fields
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Plum Blossoms in Every Stream
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No Lover Comes
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Late at Night
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