not six

Yurie Nagashima
not six

Photographs: Yurie Nagashima

Text: Yurie Nagashima

Publisher: Switch Publishing

137 pages

Year: 2004

ISBN: 4-88418-014-3

Comments: Illustrated softcover, obi is missing, 17,2 x 26,1 cm, color photographs, some black and white. First edition. In very good condition.

Born in Tokyo in 1973, artist, photographer and writer Yurie Nagashima has never stopped attacking persistent clichés. In particular, the notion that photography is stylistically ‘feminine’, as opposed to something more official that is made, criticised and endorsed by men. If Nagashima Yurie has made her life and her body an object of perpetual study, it is to better use intimacy as a tool for political reflection and to strive for universal understanding.

Her work was featured in the 2024 Rencontres d'Arles in an exhibition showcasing contemporary Japanese women photographers.

I used to play kick-the-can when I was a kid. It's kinda like tag. You hunt out the hiding kids while staying as close as possible to your base (which has a can in its center). The farther from base you go, the more likely one of the kids will come and kick the can. That's what makes the game interesting. There is also the type of kid that will wait patiently at the base, making sure no one gets close enough to kick the can. That kid definitely won't lose. Sooner or later the hiding kids get fidgety and come out to see what's happening and it's then that they get caught. One-by-one, as they get . spotted, their names get called out. Nabbed. But I was never that type of girl. Because I thought losing made the game more exciting somehow. Or, well, that's my character to see it that way and I haven't changed a bit since then. When it comes to him, it's like playing that game again. But for the first time in my life I find myself behaving like a smart kid, sitting and waiting patiently close to base. Even if there were some other guy l'm fated to be with, he would still be able to play the same game with me with the same rules like someone I rarely see. Even if I never make sense of what my life with him is about, there's no denying the fact that he is a man who can enjoy life with a photographer wife who pointed the camera at him all those times. And these are the parts of him that surprise me and make me respect him and love him. I'm watching his different selves come out of hiding just a little more. I'm waiting. Patiently. My feet are firmly planted on the base and I call out the names. Gotcha! And one day I'll look through our album, smile, and won't be able to remember a single bad thing. Even if he really does run off with some girl and even if I talk a lot about the "ideal husband", or if nothing particular happens, nothing will change between my husband and me. Whether that's good or bad has no connection with logic certainly. Like karma a little, that's just how it is.

-From Yurie Nagashima's afterword