As its opening program, A-POC SPACE at A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE / AOYAMA presents “PORTRAITS: HANDS,” an exhibition by Paris-based photographer Kenta Umemoto. The exhibition features portraits and photographs of hands by creators active in various fields, including Tadanori Yokoo, Kohei Nawa, and Harri Koskinen.

A-POC SPACE is a gallery space that opens up new possibilities through creative intersections across art, technology, and craft. Arising from A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE’s newest approach to making things, this space sets out to question the very boundaries of expression. As the inaugural exhibition marking its opening, it presents “PORTRAITS: HANDS” by photographer Kenta Umemoto.

As A-POC ABLE ISSEY MIYAKE continues to take on new challenges, it wanted to document the figures of contemporaries who resonate with one another, each confronting creation within their own field. This desire quietly set the project in motion in the summer of 2024. Guided by empathy, Umemoto selected each featured creator and captured them through his own lens. What then emerged as a symbol that conveys anew the essence of making things was the hand.

Umemoto not only shoots, but also handles the printing process for each print with his own hands. To photograph hands, he moves his hands. This approach to creation naturally overlaps with the subject of the work itself. Building on UV printing techniques he has explored for many years, he meticulously controls color, tone, and texture to construct each image. While it retains the sharpness of a photograph, expression emerges from the grain of dots and subtle misalignments in printing. The interplay between intention and chance gives the physical prints an inherent power that goes beyond the mere reproduction of an image.

At this exhibition, light boxes are used to display portraits of the hands of 23 creators, each emerging from a monotone background. In this space, where the light radiating from within the works meets the natural light spilling in, take in these portraits of the hand: the origin of touch, feeling, and movement—the very source of creation.