Seen: 「観察」SURVEILLANCE
Who: 山縣勉 Tsutomu Yamagata
Where: Zen Foto Gallery, Roppongi, Tokyo
When: February 8 – March 2, 2019 (Open 1-7pm, Closed Sun, Mon)
The Bushnell Trophy Cam is a weatherproof digital camera designed to hang on a tree in the woods for months, quietly snapping whatever wildlife that happens to trigger its sensor and invisible infrared flash. Photographer Tsutomu Yamagata reappropriated this unique camera from the wild into the domestic lives of single, young women in Tokyo in a way that- with the full consent and knowledge of the subjects- resulted in a body of work that engages a viewer a multitude of ways.
Each participant was lent the camera for a week, positioning it in their apartment however they liked- since the infrared flash is invisible and the camera absolutely silent, they never knew when they were being photographed. Yamagata told me that the camera took on average 10,000 photographs a week. The images exhibited suggest that, rather than passively being recorded the women engaged with and even performed for the camera.
From there he and the participants edited the work into a set of pictures that are often aesthetically beautiful- yet at the same time despite the openness in their creation have a tinge of voyeurism.
A printed collection of the photographs is available on shashasha here: SURVEILLANCE
The photographer’s statement in full is as follows:
Since I have gotten older, I have become curious about the lives of women in their 20s. For some reason I find many of them quite cold and daring. In this work, I have looked into their lives in order to find out what is behind their charm and mystery.
I began searching for collaborators for the project through online bulletin boards and acquaintances. We met up to discuss about the project. Coming from different backgrounds, office workers, teachers, art students, and so on, they would tell me a lot of things about their work and family.
After explaining the concept of this project, I passed to them an infrared trail camera that was originally designed to monitor animals. The camera does not need any form of operation - it automatically captures without emitting any sound or light when it detects movements. Pictures taken cannot be reviewed with the camera. The participants moved around freely in their rooms in the presence of the camera. No photographer was present. When they returned the camera to me, they seemed to be more curious about the results than I was, as if they were peeking into the lives of other people.
- Tsutomu Yamagata