Interview: Shizuka Yokomizo

Shizuka Yokomizo: Stranger (2), 1998-2000.

You look through people’s windows. Are you a Peeping Tom?

I don’t think so, because the people I portray are entitled to refuse. And I can see them while they can see me. I use a standard lense, very much like the human eye, and by using that lense, I have to get quite close.

But you are behind the window?

Yes, this way I can get the light from the room while I am almost obscured by the darkness. I do not speak with the people I photograph.

Are they your victims?

No. I wrote in the letter that I sent them: If you are not interested in participating in this project, if you don’t want to have your picture taken, then just close your curtains to show your refusal. So in a way they choose to be there: They are not victims. I was very tense and nervous to do this project, and they were probably also nervous about it and a little bit scared. And I was scared because I didn't know, what was going to happen.

Do you invading their private lives?

Technically yes, but they are allowing me to see them in their homes. Much more it’s about encounter, about eye contact and about recognizing that they exist. I exist as a stranger, they exist as strangers so it’s more about about creating a meeting point rather than just showing people’s private lives. The reason that I post my letter to them well in advance is, that I want to give them time to think. For me the process is very emotionally demanding, and for them it might just be a very scary scenario.

Shizuka Yokomizo: Stranger (1), 1998-2000.		Shizuka Yokomizo: Stranger (5), 1998-2000.

So you show us who they are and where they are. Do you also show what they are?

I think so. You see, you will be in the same position as I am when you look at the photos. I am a stranger to him og her as well as you are when you stand in front of the photos. In a way I am showing what the experience was like, and to me the pictures tell a story. I hope they tell a story to you as well.

Do you also describe their environment?

I am not really commenting on the social or anthropological aspect, it’s all about the encounter.

You show us two sides of your work. Is there a connection?

There is a correlation between the two series Stranger and All. For example I created kind of a structure of a venue between two complete strangers, keeping their otherness intact and, with the window in between, I kept my distance to them. But in the case of the prostitutes, it is they, who meet complete strangers, so that is a very different anonymous encounter.

Shizuka Yokomizo: All, 2008.

As you mentioned, your photo series All is about prostitutes. Do you have a special sympathy for them?

Not sympathy, no. But I do have respect. Sympathy is a way of looking down on people and their occupation. I find both the prostitute and her occupation interesting, and those I have photographed are, according to them, happy to be prostitutes and they have chosen this type of work themselves. I contacted them through the union of sexworkers, who are trying to legalize prostitution in Britain. Human trafficking is another matter, that I strongly oppose. When, as in England, prostitution is illegal, it goes underground and makes trafficking more difficult to detect.

Is your photo a final work, or is your audience expected to work on with it?

People do take part in the process, but my work is completed when the viwer stands in front af it.

Can your works of art change lives?

I am not that ambitious. But I really hope that there is a deeper dimension in my pictures.

How important is the element of aesthetics in your work?

That is not my priority as I take my work as documentation rather than constructed images. I am not trying to beautify things, but if I find them beautiful I will picture them as that.

Do you ever manipulate your pictures?

These two projects Stranger and All have not been manipulated. Cropped yes, but not through Photoshop or whatever. Still, in the photos of the prostitutes, I darkened their faces to make them unrecognizabel, to keep them anonymous.

Shizuka Yokomizo: All, 2008.

Has your multicultural background been an advantage in your work?

It is not an advantage nor a disadvantage. I was born in Tokyo and have lived in London for the past twenty years, but a lot of artists are in a similar position. It is not that you become both of your cultures, more that you do not become each of them. I am not very Japanese any more, nor particulary British either. It is not that you become a “plus and plus”, more like “minus minus”.

Is London an inspirational environment for an artist?

It has been quite exiting in terms of e.g. BritArt, young British Artists. But that’s all gone together with Tony Blair, the new labour movement and the good economy. And the young artists are getting older. But still London is a good place for an artist, with lots and lots of things going on.

What are your plans for the future?

I did not sleep much last night, therefore a good nights sleep will be my plan for the immediate future.

Thank you.

Shizuka Yokomizo: Stranger (4), 1998-2000.