Interview with Misato Kuroda

Where are you presently located?

I live in Tokyo, Japan right now

When you were a child were you always interested in the arts?

Yes, I was a very curious child. When I was 9 years old I would spend a lot of time drawing and I drew even more after I won a prize for one of my drawings. I wanted to be an interior designer until I was about 19 years old.

What made you first become interested in photography?

Originally I wanted to take interior design courses but I was not able to get in so I went to a private art school and entered into the Information Design Department at the Kyoto University of Art and Design and took some photography courses and I found that I loved them.

Photo by Keita Haginiwa

How would you describe your style?

I am presently exploring sex and feelings in my photos.

You also had a book published titled, “沙和子” (Honourable Company) which is on Amazon.co.jp.

Yes, it is! Here are some behind the scene stills from the making of the book and here is a link:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4904541006/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i1?pf_rd_m=AN1VRQENFRJN5&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1SREM64WSTVFHNVR6FSZ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463376756&pf_rd_i=489986

Content warning: These photos are intended for adults only. Click below to view gallery.

You were the Grand Prize winner of the 2009 Canon New Cosmos of Photography contest. What did you think when you found out you had won?

I was thrilled at winning the Grand Prize. I remember what I said when I accepted the Grand Prize: “I’m so happy right now that I’m lost for words. It’s been due to the support of all my friends and colleagues why I’m able to stand here today. Thank you very much.” I remember the audience applauded very loudly.

Your submission was titled, “He is…” and was a series of photographs of men you had relationships with. Is this correct?

They were photographs of people I’d had sex with. At first, I had to do something for my summer assignment, so I took some pictures of a classmate who I’d met when I started university that I was sort of half-living with. After that, I took some semi-nude pictures of two guys I’d gone from being friends with to being with in a more “man and woman” kind of way, and when I presented my photos, the people who saw them really praised me. That’s how I started to think that there is some meaning to taking pictures of sexual partners. The emotion that comes from having been together shows up in the photograph.

Also, by having sex, you feel as though you’ve gotten quite close to the person, that somehow you understand them. Thanks to that feeling it’s possible to take pictures more freely. I want to hang on to that feeling.

The photos have great personal meaning to you then?

Someone once said, “The camera is the only tool that can stop time.” The first time I heard that, I don’t remember exactly when it was, but I thought, “It’s like magic.” I’m most happy when my skin is next to the skin of someone I love, and I keep taking photographs, trying to stop that time.

When you have sex with someone, you begin to understand the person very well. When I know my partner likes me, I naturally begin to be able to take pictures without feeling nervous. I feel a desire to have love towards my subjects. As I continued to take pictures, I wanted to love everything about photography, even processes like developing and printing. When your subject is someone you like, everything you do becomes fun and lovely. There are tens of thousands of people in the world who are able to live positively no matter what happens. I too want to live while finding love in the things around me, and I want to continue loving both photography and my photographic subjects.

How did your relationship turn out and is this captured in your photographs too?

I liked him for nearly two years. I submitted pictures of him several times for school assignments, and people told me, “These are really good so you should take more.” I really liked him, so I kept taking his picture. In the end, he got a full-time job and our relationship ended. This picture was taken the morning after he’d cancelled his apartment contract and spent one last night in my room. Then he was gone and I took some pictures of the apartment and made a story, crying as I got the pictures together.

One of your current projects is Sawako. Can you tell us a little about it?

In the beginning of building up my sexual awareness, I turned a page of a beaver book left on a road, my heat racing. I had known what kind of picture would be inside of the book from its cover.When I saw the picture of a woman on the book, I got hot all over even though I was a child. In addition, a sense of guilt about the picture that I probably should not have seen, which also could be kind of pleasurable sensation, made me even even hotter.

For me, the modified part which was cliped out and had become white was as if the woman’s sexual organ was shining. And the thought of every man in the world gets excited when seeing such women’s pictures made me think the woman on the picture was like a goddess.

I felt that a woman is an absolute deity.My agitation that I felt when I saw the picture is still remaining in my heat.

A woman in front of me, Sawako, stirs me up by her florid cheek on her lily-white skin. Since I opened the book, I might have been fascinated with such a voluptuous goddess as well as men.

Content warning: These photos are intended for adults only. Click below to view gallery.

What photographer do you most admire?

I like the works of Rieko Shiga

What type of equipment do you shoot with?

Right now I am using a Pentax67, a Nikon FE and a Canon 5D Mark II. I change between film and digital cameras depending on my work.

What do you think is the hardest part of your job?

I mainly take portraits and the themes of my photographs are usually very deep so it is important for me to take great care with everything I do. I concentrate very hard when I prepare my photo displays.

A photograph is a still image, and there is no movement or sound, but there is a lot of information crammed in there. In a single frame, time is stopped. It’s hard to introduce feelings and movements into that, but I think it’s very interesting. By lining up the pieces and creating a whole, it’s interesting how movement starts to emerge and a story is born. I try hardest to make it into a story that can be easily spotted.

The reason why I included both contact sheets and portraits this time was because I wanted to show the movement of my eye and how I was so infatuated with this person that I was taking multiple pictures at once. Now most people use digital cameras, and that’s alright, but I don’t like how easy it is to erase the images.

What do you want to do in the future?

I hope to continue to take photos and explore more and different themes. I want to begin studying english and other languages to prepare myself for traveling! I hope to travel all over the world. I hope to take many photos and to be able to share with as many people as possible.

Photography is constantly evolving. What do you think it will be like five years from now?

Originally photography was the one way to capture moments in the world. Today with improvements in CG and other arts the actual meaning of photography has become different to me than it used to be. Also, like the advancements in video art and technology, photography will probably begin to change more and more from what we know today. For example, 3D and 4D technology. I don’t think photography will stop being an artform but I think the number of people who consider photography to be an art may diminish.

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