Shinro Ohtake’s Retina series was produced between 1988 and 1991. In this series, traces of light left on Polaroid film used for exposure tests in photography and printing are enlarged and transferred onto canvas, then covered with a transparent layer of urethane resin.
Photography, printing, and human vision all generate images through the reception of light. In each process, there exists a membrane-like layer that determines whether an image becomes visible by responding to light. In printing, a photosensitive layer records and transfers images through exposure to light, while in the human eye, the transparent retina detects light and transmits visual information to the brain. In these works, the transparent urethane resin functions like a membrane that seals and preserves traces of light. Although the resin itself is not photosensitive, its transparent surface produces reflections, refractions, and surrounding visual reflections, continually altering the viewer’s perceptual experience.
Yet the image that emerges beneath the surface is far from clear. Enlarged from traces of light produced accidentally during the exposure process, it appears vague and elusive, like an afterimage lingering in memory. Though visible, it resists precise recognition.
Through a shared mechanism by which light generates images in photography, printing, and human vision, the Retina series invites viewers to consider how we perceive reality and how memory itself is formed.