12 Glass Plates
Each plate: 148 x 210 x 3mm
Emulsion transfer with protective layering.
Bound with archival tape and aluminum tubing.

TYO2 is an artists’ book by photographer Antony Cairns. As an assemblage, its twelve sheets of glass reference the form of early photographic techniques as well as the photobook. The manner in which the images are fixed on to the sheets points to the glass negatives used by 19c photographers. This represents Cairns’ continued investigation into the history of photography as well as its mechanical and chemical processes. The choice of subject matter for this artists’ book — Tokyo, as shot in 2016 —  also points toward the idea of the camera itself. Post-war Japan has assumed 95% of the world’s camera manufacturing and this hyperbolic development is symbolized by the country’s prototypical city: Tokyo. In a poetic sense, Cairns’ choice of subject in this otherworldly body of work is a meditation on photography itself. Conflating the forms and ideas of photography techniques and the reproducibility of the image results in this artists’ book. Weighing 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds), the ethereal images of the city have a hefty materialism.