Fashion, like a magnet, has been seasonally repelled and attracted to black since the 1980s, and, with the exception of photography, every art form at one point in time has been in love with the mysterious "color" (Scientifically, black is not a color as it absorbs light rather than reflects it.). Not black that's diluted, weakened or contrasted with colors, but pure oversaturated, obliterating black.

In the 1950s, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and Ad Reinhardt dealt exclusively with the color to produce works that are simply known as the "Black Paintings." Photography however, despite being synonymous with black and white, has never quite been in awe of this darkness. Though it has certainly employed and embraced black in order to create depth and emotion, it has never allowed it to totally control the frame. True, overdominating black is theoretically the opposite of what photography is about. That is until now.

Starting today at Youkobo Art Space, Katrin Paul, a Tokyo-based, German photographer, is presenting a show entitled "100 100 100 0 or 0 0 0 100 and the Devil's Grandmother." Those unfamiliar with all those zeros needn't worry, they are not secret codes from the Devil's Grandmother but formulas for printing black on paper. In CMYK printing, black is made by printing 100 percent cyan, 100 percent magenta, 100 percent yellow and 0 percent "key," a printers' term for black -- hence 100 100 100 0 -- or by printing 0 0 0 100, with 100 percent key.