Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[HOW THEY MET]
When did we first meet?
A few years ago.
I knew about your work,
but I didn't know your face or name.
You'd also seen my work too, right?
- Yes. You left such a big impression on me when you appeared on the scene.
So I looked you up.
[SEXUALITY]
- For my generation, the nineties was tough.
- Especially for gay men in Japan at that time.
- We didn't have it as easy as today.
- So seeing your photographs of male nudes really helped me.
- I don't know, maybe you prefer not to call them "male nudes".
- But seeing them made me feel better.
- I couldn't come out as gay back then.
- But because people like you were out,
- I felt like maybe I could too.
[HOW THE COLLABORATION CAME ABOUT]
When Vice approached me about the collaboration,
a few names came to mind.
But I remembered what you said when we first met.
"Your photos conjured up a lot of emotions."
You'd always talked about the tough times that you had lived through.
Things you couldn't do as a gay man.
You said that I was the new generation. That things were different now.
We still often talk about the seventies and eighties.
I was born in 1983.
It's true that my generation has more freedom to express themselves.
That's kind of the reason why I wanted to collaborate with you.
It turned out to be really difficult though!
[THE CREATIVE PROCESS]
At first, we didn't really have any rules in terms of
what we were making, did we?
I suggested that I'd produce five or six pieces,
each featuring a different male model.
- That was it, right? - Right.
- And then we were like...
- We decided to draw pictures over the photos.
- And the idea of an octopus tangling around the model's body came up.
- We decided to combine real-life images and drawings, Roger Rabbit-style.
- And from the whole "tangled" theme,
- I somehow came to the conclusion that we should feature sea creatures.
[THE END RESULT]
- I'm really happy with this piece.
- It's great.
The five models that I shot
always feature in my work.
But my instructions were different this time.
I told them beforehand that someone is going to draw on the photos later.
I gave them a few examples of where he might be adding the drawings,
like between the arms and torso.
I mentioned that there might be a creature covering his buttocks.
I kept the "tangling" theme in my head as I was shooting.
But I wasn't all that specific.
Like, I didn't tell the model that there'd be an octopus in his arms.
But I told him to pose as if he's holding something big and slimy, and that...
I had him pose as if the slimy thing was really pushing up against him.
So I kept my instructions pretty vague.
But then you went ahead and loaded the pictures up with lots of suggestive illustrations.
- I see.
It felt like my work was being "***". It was a new sensation, but I liked it.
Things were out of my hands.
- To put it simply,
- artists aren't usually aware of what an artwork means when they make it.
- It's only when we show it to others, like acquaintances or a wider audience,
- that its colors surface, and
- the meaning seeps out.
- The collaboration was full of surprises.
- It felt so fragile.
- I mean, we were in control of it, but still.
It was different from when I shoot by myself.
Usually, I determine the models' poses,
and control what to show or hide.
I also plan the composition of the shots,
usually down to a T. So that everything looks perfect.
But this time, I had none of that.
I was unsure about everything.
Like, you'd draw illustrations in places that
I'd never choose if I were making a collage myself.
I can't say that I like your work a hundred percent. Because you know that's not true.
But strangely, being unsure of how it was going to turn out felt good.
- So it really was like I was raping you.
Sort of.
Maybe because I gave you my photos to work on.
But I'd decided I would just accept whatever you did.
Besides... Aw, cute.
Besides, we hadn't set many rules.
- Right.
- It's weird, feel more strongly towards the pieces now than when I first worked on them.
- It's so strange.
- I'm getting a delayed reaction.
- So this image of slimy creatures
- tangled around beautiful boys...
- I think it came from all the stuff I was reading online.
- Like the radiation leak at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, for example.
- Like the title "SEA/YOUTH" suggests,
- I feel like there's a "beauty and the beast" element.
- Of course, fish aren't beasts.
- And I'm not suggesting that every fish around the world is now contaminated.
- But that line of thinking definitely made it into our work.
- It's hard to explain...
- But in my mind, it's definitely a combination of the contaminated sea water and marine life,
- juxtaposed with the beautiful boys.