Hiro Matsuoka presents at Gallery Esther Montoriol his first major personal exhibition in Barcelona. This Japanese photographer currently resides in Germany and a few years ago he had a small exhibition at the much-missed Kowasa bookstore in Barcelona, one of the best in Europe in his specialty, photography.

Esther Montoriol's exhibition includes photographs of three series, which are also three books: "Scenes and Stories", "The Undescribed Dance" and "B’s Vanity". It occupies the two floors of this large gallery and allows to understand the meaning of his work and to value its contribution.

Matsuoka summarizes the meaning of his proposal in one word: "Poetry", which is the title of this exhibition. He conceives photography as a variant of poetry, in a broad sense of the word. And it is characteristic of poetry to reflect through images, to awaken the creative imagination, to create beauty and mystery and to celebrate some aspects of existence.

Each of the series opens with a literary quote, by Lewis Carroll, by Oscar Wilde and by William Shakespeare. Wilde's quotation is the one that best defines the character of Hiro Matsuoka's photographic work: „The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible“. In the photographic visions of Matsuoka, the visible almost always slips into the mystery.

— La Vanguardia, 08.05.2016 (English translation by Galeria Esther Montoriol)