Nick Knight’s First Exhibition in Japan
The Mass presents Still, the first solo exhibition in Japan by renowned photographer Nick Knight. Known for redefining the boundaries of fashion photography and visual culture, Knight has spent four decades challenging conventional aesthetics and perceptions of beauty. While his collaborations with designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Gareth Pugh, and Alexander McQueen, as well as his campaigns for Dior, Lancôme, Tom Ford, Calvin Klein, and Yves Saint Laurent, have cemented his influence in fine art and fashion, Still offers a more personal glimpse into his artistic journey.
This exhibition brings together three of Knight’s most experimental and introspective series—Flora, Roses, Photo Paintings, and Roses from My Garden—revealing a relentless pursuit of beauty through innovation and process.
Flora: A Study in Botanical Elegance
Knight’s Flora series began in 1993 as part of his installation Plant Power at the Natural History Museum in London. What started as an artistic exploration soon evolved into a landmark publication, Flora, a bold and comprehensive study of 46 meticulously selected plant specimens from the museum’s six-million-strong collection. Over three and a half years, Knight and his wife, Charlotte, meticulously documented the presence of flora—from opium to cotton—in society, creating a body of work that is both scientifically rigorous and artistically profound.
From this vast collection, Knight curated 15 standout prints for his first limited-edition portfolio, each exemplifying the striking diversity of botanical forms. The compositions are characterized by a sense of weightless clarity—photographed from above, they hover in space, devoid of background or perspective, allowing their intricate structures to command full attention. Some bloom vividly with color, while others unfold like delicate ink drawings, their organic lines unraveling in quiet, natural rhythms. The simplicity of these compositions magnifies the immense complexity of each specimen, stripping away excess to reveal nature’s raw, enduring beauty.
Drip Roses: The Fusion of Photography and Painting
In contrast to the structured elegance of Flora, Knight’s Drip Roses series embodies a rich, painterly opulence. Inspired by 16th-century still life painting, these works exist in a space between photography and painting, achieved through a painstaking process that took Knight and master printer Allan Finamore a decade to perfect.
By introducing heat and water during the printing process, Knight allows color to bleed and distort, transforming the still-life image into something dynamic and almost sculptural. The effect is mesmerizing—bold washes of color rupture traditional compositions, where antique vases anchor exploding pigments and light shimmers across deep pools of shadow. The technique recalls vanitas paintings, encapsulating the fleeting nature of life; the roses are wilting, the paint is running, the moment is slipping away.
Through Drip Roses, Knight engages with themes of decay, beauty, and time, creating hauntingly beautiful compositions where highlights of pure joy clash against darker, brooding depths. The result is an exploration of mortality and transformation, rendered through a singular visual language that merges photography with painterly expression.
The Process: Pushing the Limits of Printmaking
For over 12 years, Knight and Allan Finamore have been developing a fine art printing process that elevates color, texture, and longevity to unparalleled levels. Combining traditional darkroom techniques with a museum-grade hand-applied protective finish, their method enhances blacks to a velvety richness and makes colors appear almost luminous. The finish not only protects against UV damage and environmental contaminants but also ensures reversibility for conservation purposes.
Unlike standard inkjet or color photographic prints, which deteriorate within 30 to 60 years, their technique—supported by Wilhelm Imaging research—demonstrates a permanence of over 350 years. All of Knight’s prints are produced on Hahnemühle paper, and each edition is strictly limited to 18 prints, excluding artist proofs.
A New Vision of Beauty
As the first exhibition outside the UK to unite these distinct yet interconnected bodies of work, Nick Knight: Still offers a rare insight into the experimental side of Knight’s practice. Here, beauty is not static—it is a force of change, a process of evolution, a constant reimagining of what we see and how we see it. Through Flora and Drip Roses, Knight once again redefines visual storytelling, proving that even in stillness, transformation is always at play.