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"Photographs, films and novels are of equal merit. I want to convey deep emotions that strike a chord in the soul."
I suppose it was in 1968, when photographs from my "Young Lions" collection appeared in Asahi Camera magazine, that I realized I could make it as a professional. The subjects of the photos were young stars of the era like Akihiro Miwa, Tadanori Yokoo, Shuji Terayama, and Nagisa Ohshima. It is mainly photos from that collection, together with others taken during the 60s and 70s, that are featured in my recently published book, "Portraits of a Seething Era."
When I take photos of people, in a way, I try to direct the shot by doing things like selecting the background I have in mind and changing the lighting to avoid results that look like snapshots. At the "Young Lions -- Portraits of a Seething Era" exhibition that was held at the Olympus Gallery, an obviously experienced photographer came up to me and said, "It seems you only photograph the eyes." And he was right. When photographing people, I believe the eyes are all you really need to capture. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement, but I'd really like people to notice this in the "Portraits of a Seething Era" photo.
Some time ago, I was in charge of camera work for the film Ningen Johatsu (A Man Vanishes) directed by Shohei Imai. Since then, I've attempted various things including directing films and writing novels. It's not that I'm dissatisfied with still photography. As far as I'm concerned, photographs, films and novels are media of equal merit. People tend to think that photography is very much influenced by painting. But as the French literary critic Roland Barthes once said, "Photography is closer to acting than to painting," and I strongly agree.
At the moment, much of my work focuses on the Yaeyama Islands in Okinawa. The people in the region say that beyond the ocean there's a phantom world called Niraikanai, a place inhabited by ancestral spirits. It's also said to be the source of bountiful crop harvests. I like to believe that there is indeed a sensual, spiritually moving, deeply impressive world; a world that I have always longed to see. I want everyone to be aware that such a place exists.
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