母の遺品を身につけ、父にシャッターを押してもらう
写真と記憶が動かしていく、切実な家族の時間
幼い頃に母を亡くした仲田は、その不在が染み込んだ身の回りの風景を、あるいは生前の母の写真や遺品など、母が生きた痕跡と時間を写真に収めています。それは見えないものを見るために、そこに含まれた記憶を写真に置きかえる行為に思えます。
また、自分自身の体も母が遺したもののひとつと考える仲田は、母の遺品を身につけた自らの姿を撮影し、時には父親にもシャッターを押してもらいます。その撮影には、妻と母というそれぞれにとって大きな存在を失った父娘の繊細な緊張感が漂い、カメラを通してあらためて向き合うことの関係性やざわめきが写真に刻まれています。
幼い頃の自分を見つめる生前の母の眼差しを追体験し、遺品を通して母の死と力強く対峙することで、変わらずあり続ける自らの身や心のよりどころ、すなわち「よすが」を見出す一冊です。
Photography is certainly about light- but at its core it is the element of time which ultimately provides the medium's strongest force that pulls in a viewer. People and phenomena that have passed from this world remain transfixed as images- the family snapshot has and should live on long after those in the picture have gone. Indeed, this is a great part of why they are made in the first place.
Photographer Emi Nakata lost her mother when she was still a child. Having grown up in a domestic landscape steeped in the possessions and mementos that remained from that loss, Nakata has, through these same objects created a powerfully sensitive photobook- one feels the hum of life in the shadow of a death. Sadly, sweetly, but always intelligently and dearly, Yosuga is a rare photographic journey that traces the reverberations of personal loss and memory. Incorporating her mother's clothing, her aging father, their home, and often herself, Yosuga is a moving collection that, while remaining centered on a particular death is, through her graceful wit and sensitivity, able to evince the nature of life through photography.
よすが
我が家ではこれまでの間、母の遺品を保管していました。
しかし去年の父の定年を機にこれらを処分することになり、
私は母の遺品撮影をはじめました。
私が撮った遺品写真
母の遺品を身に纏った自分自身を撮影した写真
また、その姿を父に撮影してもらった写真
これらの写真から見えてきたもの。
それが 身や心のよりどころ、
すなわち「よすが」でした。
Yosuga
We had held on to all the things my mother left behind.
But when my father retired, my family decided to let go.
So I started to photograph her belongings.
The photographs depicting mementos were taken by me.
The photographs depicting me in my mother's clothing were also taken by me.
The photographs depicting me in my mother's dress were taken by my father.
These photographs show something
my body and mind rely on:
Yosuga.
ISBN: 978-4-86541-035-8