A Portrait of Japan
A Portrait of Japan.
Across 2 weeks travelling around Japan I took over 50 individual portraits. Stopping people on the street, in shops, on boats, and asking if I could take their picture.
I’m not even sure where the idea came from or why I started. But there was something in challenging myself to overcome that social awkwardness which stops us speaking to strangers.
It’s funny, before going I was told that the Japanese culture was incredibly reserved, that I would likely get told off for taking photos, and I definitely experienced some of that. But once I started going up to people and asking if I could take their picture, the dynamic completely changed.
People’s faces, confused at first, would light up when they realised it was them that I wanted to take a photo of. Even more interesting was how they would choose to stand, their facial expression and pose when I raised the camera to take the shot. Some would break into a wide smile, others, having been smiling, would go completely stone faced and serious, stoic perhaps? Plenty of peace signs.
Nearly always, across language and cultural divides, a kind of conversation would follow and I’d walk away feeling something had shifted; a breaking down of that social awkwardness, a stranger become familiar, relateable, human.
I’m not entirely sure what this project was about but I guess that’s what I hope it reminds me of, reflects and maybe even inspires; the stranger become familiar.
Something that seems increasingly important in today’s world.
