Yoshikatsu Fujii’s book ‘Red string’. I enjoy the tactile feel of the book.

Fujii’s project “Red String,” was highly inspired by his parents’ divorce, produced a hand-made limited edition photobook. red string is a reference to Japanese legend that people who are destined to be together have been tied together by invisible red string. he documents thier lives and includes old family images.

Red string feels fragile, made of felt like material with red string stitching, sewing on the title and small image. Its a soft cover, no image wrap or dust jacket. It has both black and white and colour images with the black and white images his original images and the coloured ones are the original childhood ones. The book’s orientation is portrait, roughly A5 size with roughly 80 pages (40 or so each half). Each half is bound together with Swiss binding (no binding in typical bending place). The title itself is relevant and poetic as red string is a reference to Japanese legend that people who are destined to be together have been tied together by invisible red string, which Fujii comments on at the end of each half. The narrative of the book is Fujii documenting his parents lives after their divorce. The book is a mix of his own images along with old family photos. The book has a very interesting design as it is split in two with, it seems, his mothers story on left and his fathers on right, relaying the message of his divided parents. The photos sometimes go over each half to read as one full image. Most of the double page spreads dont usually take up the whole page with archive images layered over originals images. One singular image rarely takes up whole page and image placement varies with some pages having multiple images. Pieces of paper with messages inserted into the book. The original images take by Fujii are not highly edited other than putting the images into black and white and slight photo montage between the original and old family images. It doesn’t seem to be sequenced specifically other than the book being in two halves. There is some text at the end and 3 inserted bits of paper with some text but not much.

After uploading and editing photos, I went back and looked at both swell and red string again and decided that I liked the physical aspect of both the projects, so decided to get some physical photos that I would be able to use. I also decided it would do two more shoots to gain even more images.

This image contrast between his parents wedding, which is meant to be the happiest day of they lives, and his mother alone on a beach, with no one but the memory of her husband, seems sentimental but also harsh. The layering of the images allow their lives to be to close but also so separate from each other which is how someone does feel during divorce. This image could be showing Fujii’s desire for his family to be whole again but as reviewer Alexander Strecker says it is merely “fragments of that which was” (Strecker, A). This book could be Fujii’s way of coping as the book is so personal and intimate. Strecker claims the book is a “reconstructed journal of this separation” (Strecker, A), however I believe rather than being a journalisms of the separation, I believe it is more like a journal of coping with the change. The book itself is broken, with a split in the centre, forever keeping his mum and dad separated, a tragic thought for those who know hat its like for parents to separate. The archive images used so frequently are almost a form of grounding. It is continually reminding a viewer of the past happiness making the separation and loss so much greater. The handmade fragile book really encompasses the fragility of life friendship and love.

Yoshikatsu Fujii

Born and raised in Hiroshima City. Graduated from Tokyo Zokei University of Arts with a BA in Art Film. He began photography work in Tokyo in 2006. His photographic works often deal with historical themes and memory lingering on in contemporary events.

Fujii’s project “Red String,” was highly inspired by his parents’ divorce, produced a hand-made limited edition photobook. Nominated for several awards, including the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards. The book has been named as one of the best photobooks of 2014 by contributors to numerous publications including TIME magazine.

” This work may be a personalized narrative for myself, but “family” is something that everyone has – a universal theme. There is nothing happier for me than if viewers can insert their own families and freely appreciate the work.”

Yoshikatsu Fujii

I chose to study Yoshikatsu Fujii I felt his images resonated with my experience of parents divorce and he manages to express similar feelings. I thought I would easily be able to use his images as inspiration and effectively respond. I enjoyed the minimal editing and simple montages with the incorporation of aesthetic images just to set the tone. Like him, I want the image content to be centre focus rather than the looks. The mix of colour and black and white, as well as the incorporation of old family photos really spoke to me and it was definitely something I wanted to include into my project.

https://www.yoshikatsufujii.com/red-string

Similar to Yoshikatsu Fujii is….

Mateusz Sarello

Mateusz Sarello was born in 1978 in Warsaw. A Graduate from the Academy of Photography in Warsaw. He is the author of the book “Swell”

Swell is a story of a break-up and of unaccepted loneliness. About going back to the same places and memories that we can’t forget. At first, Sarello was doing a photographic documentary of the baltic sea, when he went through a break-up. His images (and the project itself) turned into a representation of the loneliness and sadness that follows.

“It is never easy to talk about love. There is banality and pretentiousness round every corner. There are, however, authors who can balance successfully on the border of beauty and kitsch. Mateusz Sarełło is certainly one of them.”

 Dariusz Bochenek

I wanted to study Mateusz Sarello as I find the way he laid out his book (the broken spine and the ‘happier’ images first with a gap and the ‘sadder’ images after) and the images using flash interesting and a great way of creating disturbing feeling in a viewer.

My uncle recently gave me a pen drive full of old family photos and videos. As part of my project, I thought I would go through this pen drive and pick out some photos I thought would be effective in conveying the feeling I wanted from my project. Not only did I try to find as many photos of my parents together, but I thought I’d also include old ones of my whole family, as my sisters have moved out which also affects our family dynamic.

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I plan to explore what life is like living with separated parents, one of which does not live in jersey, and document it. I will be looking at Mateusz Sarello with his project ‘swell’ and Yoshikatsu Fujii and ‘red string’ and responding to their images and creating my own concepts as these projects both are based around the theme I wish to study. I plan to use minimal editing and make the subject in my photos take the main focus. I will also be using old family photos to interweave into my project and be using them to inspire some of the photos I will take.

These images are from a photoshoot I did, trying to collect some images I thought would work with my personal study whilst also juxtaposing them. The purpose of these images and the feeling I wanted to get from them was purely aesthetic while trying to envoke an emotional response that isn’t constructed.

I was trying to decide here between a more saturated and vivid effect, bringing out the neons and making the colours and lights the focus of the image, or have the image less saturated, with the colours still being the most obvious feature but also focusing on the scene captured itself.

Again, in these sets of images, I was trying to decide whether I wanted the colours to stand out the most or if I wanted a sort of muted look. In all the images I liked the reflections and wanted to name them to stand out which I think I achieved in images 1 and 3. Looking back, I would’ve cropped them to frame them better.

First things First: Gather old family photos!!

Plane ticket to the UK in the center of the book.

Shoot 1:

Observing family life (Dad) – Try and get snapshots of daily life. – just as i go

Concept:

• Dad doing bills?
• How the house looks as a single dad
• Maybe dad having one of his naps?
• Dad doing chores
• maybe re-enacting some photos
• portraits

Technical:

• Well lit
• candid – but not bad quality

Shoot 2:

Aesthetic Shoot – Try and get images that envoke feeling (in the style of Mateusz Sorello) – just as i go

• birds
• waves
• plants
• things that create a disjointed or lonely nature

Technical:

• flash
• grainy
• high clarity

Shoot 3:

Observing family life (Mum) – Try and get snapshots of daily life. – over new years

Concept:

• Housework
• How the house looks as a single mum
• re enacting childhood photos
• family life

Technical:

• Well lit
• candid – but not bad quality
• portraits

Shoot 4: 1st week back

• Revisiting places visited in family photos
• recreate

Quotes;

“The question arises; if manipulation is the first thing someone thinks of in connection to photography, what does that say about the value of the photograph as a reflection of reality?” (Bright and Van Erp. 2019:17 )

“The Daguerreotype had aspirations to both the realistic and the theatrical, as well as to the commercial.” (Bright and Van Erp. 2019:17)

“One could argue that this actually makes it easier to interpret the degree of reaity in this image, for the lack of human subjectivity, makes it an example of ‘true reality’.” (Bright and Van Erp 2019:17/28)

“The process of manipulation starts as soon as we frame a person, a landscape, an object, or a scene with out cameras: we chose a portrait or landscape format.” (Bright and Van Erp 2019:18)

“The binding principle of photography, however, remains its relationship to reality” (Bright and Van Erp 2019:18)

“Photography has undergone a transformation, not only technologically but conceptually” (Bright and Van Erp 2019:18)

Bibliography;

Bright, S. and Van Erp, H. (2019), Photography Decoded. London; Octopus Publishing House.

From your Personal Investigation based on OCCUPATION vs LIBERATION write an overview of what you learned and how you intend to develop your Personal Study.

how to take photos in low light

how to use lightroom and create collections and effectively chose and experiment wiht photographs will cvontinue to use effectively

how to use archives to influence my work whihc i will continue to use in my poersonal study (old occupation and liberation stories and family stories)

how to work with models and intreect with them – i may be using people in my photobook therefore i will contuinue to prectice

tha its important to get to kbnow the people youre taking phpotoas of so they become more conmfortable; it makes the images more relaxed

how to pose people

how to set up ligting and cameras for an objects photoshoot

how to place photogrpahs in a sequence that has narrative and tells a stroy – crucial

how to mix togehter archve and original images whihc i will continue to do

through studying still life how objects can carry ,meaning as well as their placement

Describe which themes, approaches (LANDSCAPE, PEOPLE, OBJECTS), artists, skills and photographic processes/ techniques inspired you the most and why.

i enjoyed montagihng archive images and using them to get my inspirations

i also really got inspired by listening to hedleys stories first hand

studying and responding to paul virillio

taking photos of the bunkers and mixing them wiht the surrounding landscape

the textures of the old bunkers

taking low lit photos in bukers

Richard Billingham: Ray’s A Laugh

Robert Adams: Summer Nights

Include examples of current experiments to illustrate your thinking.