PHOTOGRAPHER HAL
"FLESH LOVE RETURNS"
Pages: 64/ photos: 57
Size: 310x237x13mm / 780g / hardcover
Price: 4,500JPY
Release Date: September 2016
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Between those who love each other are instinctively attracted, and they
hope to become the one.
To represent this power of love, I have photographed couples vacuum-sealed.
This time I started a project called “Flesh Love Returns”, shot the couple’s
most important place. Shooting location is decided by the couples,
then I decide the best angle there. Some couples choose their own room,
some choose the workplace where they first met, and some choose a
restaurant where they had a date for the first time. Two people were packed
perfectly in their best place. It is unalloyed packed couple without even air
between them. I think this is the ultimate substantial portrait. To participate
in this shooting, the couple is required to determine to have the love as well
as death, and I am also required to have determination which would make
my life shorten. I made framing much carefully so that it became a lifetime
best of commemorative photo for the couple. In order to be able to shoot for
me at any time anywhere, I have carried relatively simple light equipment,
but still around 30kg. I carried it not only Japan but also overseas, I took
photographs any place whenever there was a shooting possible opportunity.
Countries I shot were Netherlands, Belgium, Hong Kong and Japan.
One time, I borrowed power source from the caretaker of neighbourhood
in order to get the power for lighting when I was shooting in front of the
canals of Amsterdam. So after that, I have changed all equipment to set by
a battery. By hearing about me overseas, some couples from the United
States, Australia, Germany, visited me in Tokyo to be my model. I asked
them to think about the location where the couple would have the most
impressive memories in their Tokyo stay, and photographed them at the
last timing in Tokyo. When I shot outdoors, sometime it was rain, sometimes
equipment was blown off by the wind. Sometimes I had to finish the
shooting in a few minutes because the place was too busy. In other time,
when the couple would like to be model in the park at night, I had a hard
time to find the right angle with the light by a public street lights. I spent
about two and a half years to complete this project in the end. But the
publication was settled on the way of project, so more than half of
production was shot in the last half year eventually to meet deadline.
In those days, I focused only on this project whether awake or asleep,
and I appreciate that I have done this much of work is because of my
models, all couples.
Someday, I hope to find my love, and together be in vacuum-sealed bag
to be “Flesh Love Returns” too.
(Excerpts from the author's postscript)
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PHOTOGRAPHER HAL
"ZATSURAN"
Pages: 64/ photos: 59
Size: 305x215x12mm / hardcover
Price: 3,500JPY
Release Date: September 2014
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Men and women are attracted to each other and try to become one. This fundamental desire carries an energy that affects all matter in the world. I wonder what is the reason we have to make such an effort to become one. Possibly we were originally one. Since I believe this, I intend to visualize this power of love by adhering and unifying couples. The closer the distance between them, the stronger the power. The law of gravity also shows the pull is stronger when two objects become closer; and glue, too, is stronger when it is applied thinner. To be adhered shows their strength.
I decided to vacuum-pack couples as a method to express coherence. Because the couple cannot breathe in the bag, the vacuum-packed state can only be kept for several seconds. This is why I chose photography to capture these pieces. The series “Flesh Love” originated from this concept. When I was trying to look for a way to express the power of love, I thought of a star which, when it dies, shrinks and creates a black hole that sucks its surroundings into itself.
From here I started to vacuum-pack lovers together with their possessions. We cannot bring all their possessions into the studio so, for the selection process, we concentrated on items most closely connected to their personalities. These possessions are tools that help communicate the essence of their characters. To be vacuum-packed and adhered to one another is a new way of illustrating the couple's love. While extracting the air, the belongings' positions shift unpredictably and the result can be unexpected. This appearance seems chaotic at first, but there is an inevitability and order, like the structure of the natural world.
Naturally arranged subject matter shows the couple in their true form. This is their chaotic microcosm.
(Excerpts from the author's postscript)
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PHOTOGRAPHER HAL
"FLESH LOVE"
Pages: 88 / photos: 72
Size: 152x202x8mm / softcover
Price: 1,800JPY
Release Date: December 2011
Application for iPad
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When you embrace your lover, sometimes you wish to melt right into them.
To realize this wish, I've been photographing couples in small, or even cramped spaces like motels and bathtubs. As my work has become more and more intense,
I've noticed that communication is indispensable.
This time, I reached the point of photographing couples in vacuum-sealed packs, in a set that I 've constructed in my own kitchen. The lights are in the ceiling,
so I just lip one switch and have everything ready.
I have a few different colored paper backgrounds, which I can leave rolled up in the corner.
until there's none left. This gives me 10 seconds to take the shot.
In this extremely limited time I can't release the shutter more than twice.
(Excerpts from the author's postscript)
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PHOTOGRAPHER HAL
"Couple Jam"
Pages: 96 / photos: 56
Size: 151x224x9mm / softcover
Price: 1,800JPY
Release Date: August 2009
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This book was created out of Photographer Hal's interest in the personal dynamic between couples. He says that he started out photographing in Tokyo nightclubs, but found that above everything else he was drawn to the energy he found in couples. However, the lighting of nightclubs made it hard to shoot people well, so he arranged to take pictures of couples at their homes. "Even more so than the bedroom or the restroom," Hal writes in the postscript, "I felt that the bathroom was the most private place in the home for a couple. So I decided to take my photographs with them in the bathtub." The result is an extremely playful look at some of the more exuberant couples of Tokyo.
"Couple Jam" features loud color, and even louder people in front of the camera. Most of the couples are wearing outrageous outfits, so when they climb into a single bathtub they appear like a single entity of limbs, heels, faces, accessories, hair and the occasional cybernetic tentacle. These are brashly captured expressions of a new generation. |