「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Photography is a Silent Sigh – Masahisa Fukase

He was an artist lost in the gloom and a “selfish” player of light and shadow. Masahisa Fukase’s lens was not an indifferent observation of the world, but a self-projection of his life’s wounds.

The failure of his marriage in 1976 marked a turning point in his creative career. Before that, “Yoko” captured his obsession and entanglement with his wife through intimate private photography. The images were filled with passionate love as well as suffocating dullness and hidden tension. After the divorce, his career stagnated and he fell into depression and alcoholism, which led him to focus on crows in Hokkaido. It took him ten years to polish “Crow”, a “dark masterpiece”. He used a dual narrative to shuttle between reality and fantasy, observing the crow flocks while also transforming into a crow. The grainy black and white images externalized his loneliness and desolation. The crows that roosted at dusk and dispersed at dawn were the embodiment of his frustrated soul.

From “Yoko” to “Crow”, Masahisa Fukase’s photography evolved from documenting intimate relationships to projecting his own predicaments. His works are like “a sigh”, an art that sprouts from the cracks of life, and a complete vessel for his personal emotional trauma and life experiences.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.