In your profile, it states that you continue to photograph “Ibasyo”,
a Japanese term, physical/emotional space in which one can exists as a major
theme in your works, but could you tell us in detail what this “Ibasyo” is?
To
be frank, this is quite difficult to answer, but this space can be expressed by
many things. It can be a physical space, or a mental place; or even a sense of
belonging. However, when you think of any of those, you can affirm your own
existence, be affirmed, and I think it ends up leading to “recognition”, like you
feel you can be there.
The works viewable on your website are all from different series,
but when do you come up with the themes and concepts of each?
I
generally think about a rough idea of story that I want to take before I start
shooting. But, once I actually start photographing, many unknowns come to the
forefront. That’s something interesting about documentary photography.
When you start working on a project, do you work with the
assumption that the final goal is a photobook or exhibition?
I
think that book and exhibition are great for presenting a work but it can be
different options depending on the work. Who knows?
If there was something consistent in
all your works representative of you, what do you think it would be?
I
think it’s rather dangerous to try to reason out what it is that makes my work
my own; but without thinking about too much during the photoshoot, I am hoping
to capture “existence” of whatever I photograph.
The “existence” you speak of is “it is there at the time”?
That’s
precisely it. However, photos capture what’s there as-is, but the truth is not
always reflected in the photo. It’s quite vague, and difficult to express
clearly in words—but it’s exactly that vagueness, which is always just out of
reach but I keep stretching out to reach it that I try to capture in film. Photos
are two-dimensional things after all, and for better or worse they are
superficial things. But on the other hand, I think that it’s a medium where
unintentional magic can happen. I’m there, and in front of my eyes there is the
world that is connected to me. It feels like I am continuously scratching away
at that surface, and in the rarest of chances the photos reflect the
connections between myself and the world I live in. It’s a very improbable and
indefinite thing.