shinya

I’ve began to gather some ideas and do a few initial tests for my project. I am planning to explore 4 mini projects within the larger body of work.

The key components will be;

• Self-portraits (these will convey my mental state.)
• Small, seemingly insignificant moments (these will illustrate the “everydayness” of
  the situation.)
• Repeated images of the same subject (these will depict the passing of time.)
• Digital collateral (screenshots, text messages, etc.)

I started documenting my cup every day, and I like the irregularities of the handle placement and the remnants of liquid. I have intentionally made them quite rough in placement (not planning the direction of the handle, for example) because I want to retain authenticity and don’t want to stage these images. These images are mundane and insignificant by themselves, but when shown together, I hope that they express the passing of time, my habitual nature, and also invite viewers to look for differences, similarities or patterns.

Continuing with the sense of time passing, I have asked Shinya to take a photo of the above corner every day when he passes it to go to work. This is a corner about 300m from our house in Osaka, and I would pass it at least twice a day every day when I lived there. Shinya is not a photographer, but he has expressed that he is excited to participate in this project. I think this particular scene will be effective in showing the passing of time as there is a sakura tree in the frame- and these change drastically and very quickly. It is also a symbol of Japan, which I think is important to note.

I want to include visual collateral in this project, and the above is a small photo of Shinya that I keep in my wallet. This was taken in an ID photo booth, which are literally everywhere in Japan (in every convenience store, on street corners, in front of offices and immigration, etc.) What I think is so ‘Japanese’ about this is that it looks like he is photoshopped. These machines always blur your skin a lot and use lighting that makes the subject appear sparkley-eyed, even though it is producing an image that is used for official documents.

The final collection that I have started is screenshots of conversations I have had with Shinya via Messenger. We sometimes speak in English, sometimes Japanese, and sometimes a mix. Most of the above conversations centre around the COVID-19 discussion, but I am not sure if I want to continue with that theme in regard to screen grabs, or be a bit more general.