“In Japan, legend has it that a red string connects lovers by their fingers from the moment they are born.”

https://vimeo.com/102344549

The ‘Red String’ photo book by Yoshikatsu Fujii  is about the breakdown of his own family as his parents went through a divorce. Therefore Fujii is using archival images and different materials from when he was still a young  kid and when his parents where still married. The photo book it self is call red string as “In Japan, legend has it that a man and a woman who have a predestined encounter have had each other’s little fingers tied together by an invisible red string since the time they were born.”  this will mean that those two people are connected through that string forever.  What is interesting about Fujii’s photo book is that throughout time, that red string begins to weaken. Cleverly and creatively, Yoshikatsu Fujii’s photo book begins to have less and less red string, and the string even begins to split leaving some of its string behind. This was done to represent how overtime, his parents began to loose the love that they had for each other and eventually loosing that red string all together, and that’s when the red string finally breaks.  All of the photographs included are all vernacular snapshots with the primarily intention of them being memories to hold on to and to be able to look back at them in the future. For Yoshikatsu Fugii, it would eventually be to be able to remember a time when him and his family where still all together and happy. He is now able to look at those memory snapshots to try and feel what it felt like when his family were all still together.

The whole book itself is divided down the middle and it looks like there’s two different books in one, which some people may argue that, that there are meant to be two books, one for each of his parents. However, the way I personally see it, the book is divided into two separate parts to symbolize his Yoshikatsu’s parents splitting up however they are meant to be telling one single story instead of two. When we first open the book, we can see straight away that the book is separated into two different sections, and in each different section there is a photograph of Yoshikatsu with his dad on one side and then another photographs of Yoshikatsu with his mum on the other. Therefore, it is already setting up the scene of that, his parents being divorced. The photo book itself has a whole range of different photographs, from new to old, from back and white to some more abstract visuals. Yoshikatsu in an interview has commented that all the photographs by themselves do not make a lot of sense, as they didn’t to him at first when he was starting to think about the concept of this photo book. However he has also mentioned that as soon as the photographs where placed together, they intertwined to create a narrative of his parents divorce, them being together, old photographs of Yoshikatsu as a child, as well as some photographs that where produced to convey feelings and emotions rather than evoke memories.

I have chosen to include this photo book as one of my photo book inspirations as I really like how raw and emotional it is. It also connects well to the theme that I am exploring  for this A2 exam, and that being ‘Truth’. Another reason as to why I decided to include it, is because I really liked the way that the photo book itself was put together and how everything is connected. I found it really creative also, the way that the book included different extracts from different stages in Yoshikatsu’s life, some different written notes that seem that they are not meant to be part of the book. I also really liked the way some of the photographs were laid out, some on top of each other, some juxtaposing each other, however Yoshikatsu somehow managed to make them work well to create an emotional visual story.

“The design of ‘Red String’ is so integral to the narrative, what lead you to make these decisions in the work?The idea actually came quite simply. As the book focuses on my parents divorce it didn’t make sense to have their stories together in the same book, so it was decided to make two parts to the one book – just as there are two lives within the one marriage. That is also why it was so important to make these two sides speak to each other as well, to refer back to the fact that they were once together but now are separated. This was also the reasoning behind the use of the red string. The string acts as a binding within the spine of the book but no longer connects the two lovers together – however the children become the red string, the history of the relationship, the connection that no longer exists apart from the threads.This is also why the book cover is made of white felt, it is soft and comforting to touch yet can be easily dirtied and becomes quite precious. The cover will show ageing over time the more it is read and worn down, it symbolises how the family relationship becomes worn over time too.”

“How did you go about mixing photographs of your childhood and parents past with your own work?When I first decided to create a book I didn’t have that much material as I’d only been photographing for about 2 years. I had been documenting only my father photographically as my mother did not like to be photographed as much. The decision was made to use the family archives as it was integral to have the family history behind the work, to add context to the meaning and also to reference the family’s collective memory.As a photographer of course I thought it would be nice to have a book all of my own photographs but now I am much more flexible with using both family photos and my own, especially when it helps build the photo-story. However, I must be careful in what respect I use the found imagery and where it has come from.”

“Was it hard to find imagery that spoke to you and your concept in the archives of family photographs?In the beginning it wasn’t easy to find photographs but after searching through the archives of the remnants of my parents own childhood and mine it has become easier to find material to use in creating a narrative. Once I widened my search to include more media not only photography it became easier. There is one picture that my mother drew when she was a child that I used in the book, it represents her own childhood so the viewer can see much further in time and history.”

“What lead to the decision to turn the works into a photobook?I had so many single images that I didn’t know to fit them all together or to tell a story. However, once they were in book format it was easier to curate a narrative, there was a place for my images within the book, and the story began to reveal itself within the images.“