Kodomo (Children) by Gocho Shigeo
Devouring Photobooks #28
About the photographer
I first came across his name in Shi-shashinron (私写真論) by Iizawa Kotaro, which I have read in Chinese (unfortunately no English translation is available yet).
Gocho suffered from a rare disease that caused deformity of his spine, he was significantly shorter than normal people of his age. Looking at his photographs, one would easily notice they are taken from a lower angle.
During his time in Kuwasawa Design School, Gocho started his journey as a photographer. Perhaps fueled by the premonition of his premature death, he has his mind set on creating his own photobooks, which he managed to publish three before his death at the age of 37.
His most notable work — “Self and Others” he selected sixty photographs. Gocho’s identity of self changed accordingly to his relationship with the subject. Arranged in the order of “people who are most intimate to him” to “people who he are not close to”. While unfortunately, I did not have access to this particular book. It is said that a gradual change of Gocho’s self-identity can be observed through the people photographed.
To put it simply, during his photographic career, he was interested in exploring the relationship of self and other in photography.
Projection of “self”
“Kodomo” is a compilation of Gocho’s photographs of children. After reading about Gocho’s background, I can sort of relate/understand the photographs more. Since Gocho was above the same height with the children, the low angel shows the photographer and the subject as equals. Perhaps it is this reason the children photographed appeared to have such natural and unguarded expressions.
Gocho’s childhood was riddled with pain. His illness barred him from having a normal childhood. The children photographed, some are smiling, some are crying, some are playing with their peers. All of which I assume Gocho missed in his childhood. By photographing them, Gocho is projecting his desire (self) to have a normal childhood onto the children (other).
Taking it one step further, I would even suggest the reason why the children looked so relaxed and natural in front of a stranger’s lens, is due to Gocho’s self interacting with the children (others). Because if one related themselves to others, unavoidably a sense of affection / caring would be generated towards them. And this kind of affection led Gocho to bond with the children and capture their natural expressions.
I suppose the above is a little bit of a stretch but this is what I feel after reading Gocho’s section in Shi-shashinron and the photobook for a number of times.
Reading about Gocho’s work has reminded and strengthened my belief , to fully enjoy photography, as well as other art forms, one ought to try and understand the context of the creation as well as the artist’s history. Surely the photographs when looked in isolation are nice in their own way, but I have gained a new sense of appreciation for the book after I learnt more about him.
Thank you for reading.
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