mouth hole (Workbook)
dimensions variable
A book by 北村 千誉則 Chiyonori Kitamura
Edited by 张荻儿 Dier Zhang
“To me, the robotic movements involved in the act of eating always seemed to be a mixture of misery and eroticism in the vulnerable appearance of a mouth half-open. By opening and closing mouths, people pretend to be normal, act bitterly defeated, and create strong senses of urgency.”
Publication Date: June 30 2017
ISBN: 978–91–87829–48–2
Page Count: 52
Binding Type: Perfect binding
Trim Size: 4.5” x 6”
Language: English
Color: Full color with bleed
Related categories: photography / photoessays / documentaries
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BUY
It is said that when looking into someone’s eyes you can see their soul. But it is the corners of the mouth that express our deepest feelings, joy and sadness. Some people cover their mouth to hide their feelings; you capture their mouths unknowingly. What do you learn about your subjects in the course of making this book?
The eye consciously moves on a regular basis, in order to see things as well as to show things.
To a certain extent the mouth operates unconsciously; even when it is decorated, surely no one consciously thinks about it and moves it on purpose while going through their day. In addition, the mouth is exposed, much like a surgery scar, with part of the interior visible and other parts invisible—a secretive and individual part of the body.
When people eat, they momentarily forget that their mouths are decorated. They open their mouths, shove food inside, and leave their mouths partly open in a defenseless manner; instead of desperate anguish, they satiate themselves with food to obtain satisfaction.
To illustrate the series of actions which takes place at the time, closing the mouth and not moving the cheeks displays an expressionless look and conveys a well-reasoned and watertight coldness; in contrast, pursing the lips and opening the lips in an exaggerated manner creates an illusion where the subject himself or herself is also participating in a kind of performance flow that conveys a sense of defeat. In "mouth hole" there are more close-ups than in "buh___bye", and in this work a fictional inner world could be created by fictitious characters not existent in "buh___bye".
How do you capture these mouths in motion?
I keep my distance to protect. All I do is press the record button. While I do use a compact digital camera, I mainly shoot video on it. I transfer these video clips to my iPhone and just crop them so that they will fit the square framing used by Instagram. I guess that there is usually about 10 meters between me and the object. I often use a 600–1200mm zoom lens.
mouth hole is your second Instagram project after buh___bye using smartphone camera. How does this platform and the camera inside your phone, help you create your work?
Because people seek idealized images and photographs that make them look their best, the biggest benefit of Instagram is that you cannot clearly distinguish between what is normal and what is abnormal. In addition, what is on the Internet is simply an archive and can be saved as such.
Further, it can be accessed easily by anybody, and photographs can be delivered to those with interest and those without interest. As concepts are not prioritized, these photographs serve their purpose sufficiently by simply showing, “Here it is. This is how it is.” It is similar to a toddler smearing a wall with colored pencils and saying “bah bah.”
