Vera Sacchetti: What is the story behind this Tokyo series?
Midori Hasuike: The photographic series originated when I recently went to live and work in Tokyo. Anyone arriving from Europe inevitably picks up on all the differences they see in Japan but also the many points of contact with the Western culture. This series of pictures shows the feelings experienced when you approach such an incredibly vast and complex metropolitan landscape and its seemingly contradictory social customs. These contrasts provide endless food for thought and exploration.
After spending a few weeks in the city, how would you describe it? What does it feel like?
Tokyo is an eclectic, dynamic and surprising city. The first impression is that of a crushing reality but the sensations become less harsh after a few weeks. The chaos reveals its own order and the overbearing styles prove to contain ample freedom for personal expression. I believe that Tokyo feeds on constant, positive comparisons between its parts, and its eclecticism gives it energy.
It is always exciting to be faced with new realities that are alien to your own background. It offers a chance to observe unexpected scenarios through uncontaminated eyes. I want my work to recreate a point of view that is in line with the place I am in and avoid, as far as possible, imposing an overly outsider vision, using the photographic medium as a way to interest the spectators. Extracting an unexpected feeling from a scene that appears ordinary at first glance is the result I always aim for, whatever context I happen to find myself in.
The interaction between humans and the built environment is an extremely stimulating field of research. We are accustomed to living our cities according to set paths and paying scarce attention to feelings, changes and how other people move in our shared space. A photograph can freeze fleeting details that would normally pass unnoticed or frame an ordinary scene from an unconventional angle that gathers more elements than we are used to seeing.
You are a young photographer; what comes next?
I want to record what lies beneath the ordinary reality of a specific place and step beyond appearances... in Tokyo or any other place I might get to know and live in.
I want to record what lies beneath the ordinary reality of a specific place and step beyond appearances... in Tokyo or any other place I might get to know and live in
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