FUJI, Yoshikatsu - Red String

Statement by the photographer, Yoshikatsu FUJI

"In Japan, legend has it that a man and a woman who have a predestined encounter have had each other’s little fingers tied together by an invisible red string since the time they were born. Unfortunately, the red string tying my parents together either came untied, broke, or perhaps it was never even tied to begin with. But if the two had never met, I would never have been born into this world. If anything, you might say it is between parent and child that there is an unbreakable red string of fate." (© Yoshikatsu FUJI)

Background information

"There are times when you stumble over a photograph and you wish you had made it. The same is true, for us, with books. Yoshikatsu FUJI‘s 'Red String' is such a book. We fell in love with it the first time we saw it, and it is a book we take off the shelf quite often. It has all we look for in a great book: compelling narrative, amazing concept and design, nice feel, and personal investment. When Yoshikatsu FUJI approached us about a chance to collaborate, we were incredibly excited.  This season, we will be working to produce and publish the 'trade' edition of 'Red String'. We put 'trade' between brackets for a reason. While it is not possible to replicate exactly the handmade and sold out edition of 35 copies, we will put every effort into producing an edition that stays true to the original hand made feel. (...) This edition of the critically acclaimed 'Red String' includes new, never before seen photographs and is available with two different cover images. "The project 'Red String' by Yoshikatsu FUJI, motivated by his parents’ divorce and produced as a hand-made photobook of a limited edition of 35, was nominated for several awards including the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards. The book was also selected by TIME magazine as one of the Best Photobooks of 2014. The book is retained in MoMA The Museum of Modern Art Library in New York." (© Ceiba, 2016)

Content

"The first time that we open 'Red String' by Yoshikatsu FUJI, we are confronted with two snapshots. On the left, a young father, sitting on a concrete embankment by the water, gives us an inquisitive look while holding what appears to be his newborn child. On the right, a smiling mother, sitting on the same embankment by the same body of water, holding the same child. As the snapshot aesthetic hints, these are memories. A glimpse into the past, when things were whole. But even at that early moment, the separation was evident. Already the mother and father were apart and the baby split between them. What follows on the inside of this wonderfully constructed artist's book is a reconstructed journal of this separation. An attempt to make whole that which was (and remains) broken. Flipping through the two sections simultaneously, we see fragments of that which was: wedding portraits, family photos, snapshots from youth and so on. In the words of the artist, Yoshikatsu FUJI, 'My family will probably never meet all together again. But I can feel without a doubt that there is still proof inside each of us that we once lived together.' As Yoshikatsu FUJI explains in the text at the back of the book, there is a Japanese legend that says predestined lovers are tied together by an invisible piece of red string, from the moment they are born. While that red string between his mother and father was apparently sundered, FUJI offers his 'Red String' as a way to bind these losses back together. Thus, the structure and layout of the book, combined with the fascinating mix of photos (old, new, black and white, color, abstract) blend together perfectly, offering an intimate artistic experience. It is exactly the kind of experience that is the unique province of this ever-changing, but loosely bound together thing we call the photobook." (© Alexander Strecker, in: Lensculture)

Reviews

"Many entries this year featured a dual structure but this one, with two separate bound books, one on either side of the cover’s interior, is both logical and allows multiple readings." (© Anne Wilkes Tucker)
"The split binding allows the reader to page through one side and then the other, but the powerfulness comes from pairing both halves together. In this delicate and personal family album, Yoshikatsu FUJI ties the memory of his family back together with the cultural metaphor of red string." (© Larissa Leclair)
"I feel this totally hand-made book features the bonds of human. The title comes from some old Japanese saying that a woman and a man who have fate to encounter is tied with red string on their little fingers together. The photo volume 'Red String' by Yoshikats FUJI shows us a simple thing, a man needs a man anyway.  Also I like warmness of the touch sense of this binding by the photographer himself." (© Hisako Motoo)

About the Japanese photographer, Yoshikatsu FUJI

Photo books by Yoshikatsu FUJI