An apple never falls far from the tree
Yoshihiko Ueda is a world-renowned photographer, curator and professor of Tama Art University, born in 1957 in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He launched his career as an independent photographer in 1982. International recognition for his commercial work includes the Tokyo Art Directors’ Club Grand Prize, The New York Art Directors’ Club Award, and a Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity among others. In parallel, Ueda has continually pursued his artistic practice. He has published more than 35 photography books. In 2011 he launched Gallery 916, where he plans and produces photography-related exhibitions, publications, and talks.
This summer Yoshihiko Ueda will curate and produce the first ever exhibition in the new Loro Piana flagship due to open in Ginza in May 2020.
The images published here are extracted from his book ‘Apple Tree’.
Photographs by Yoshihiko Ueda - ©2017 Yoshihiko Ueda
In 2013, Yoshihiko Ueda accidentally came across the oldest apple tree in the town of Kawaba, Gunma Prefecture, while acting as a juror in the town’s “Nature Photo Festival”. Struck by the fullness and colour of the fruits illuminated by the warm sunlight, Ueda took some shots of the tree through the window of his taxi. The memory of the Kawaba apple tree never left him and, some years later, he returned to the town to capture the images published on these pages.
Speaking of his work, Ueda relates the feeling of joy that the vision of the fruits evoked each time he pressed the shutter. It was as if he established a sort of intimacy with the old tree, perceiving the extraordinary energy of nature through the ripe fruits and paying homage to it.
Century-old apple trees also grow on the large lawn in front of the Loro Piana Wool Mill in Quarona Sesia. Pietro Loro Piana planted them in the 1930s, shortly after founding Ing. Loro Piana & C. S.p.A. Imposing today, with their twisted branches, they are a familiar vision to the inhabitants of the Valsesian town and to all the workers who enter the mill each morning. Pietro Loro Piana planted them because he wanted to make the place pleasant, so that his employees could enjoy a vision of fullness and joy every day. The fruits then, once ripe, were available to everyone, and still are today.
Such similarities, with such a distance, between century-old Japanese and Valsesian apple trees. They are united by the same fullness, the rich energy of nature’s gifts that manifests itself through ripe fruits, the majesty of wisdom that comes from deep roots and above all the joy that the apple trees are destined to arouse in those who look at them, whether artist or worker.
We have chosen them as a symbol of the profound relationship that binds Loro Piana to Japan since the sixties, a relationship based on a communion of feeling, on an aesthetic sense and an enduring love for quality which will be incarnated in the new Japanese maison of Loro Piana in Ginza. A majestic building like the apple tree, full of symbols that tell a story of mutual respect and love for the same values. Ancient roots and new fruits.
