Motoyuki Daifu

Still Life, 2013, C-Print

photographer, Tokyo

interview by KEN MILLER
portrait by CHIKASHI SUZUKI

All images courtesy of Misako & Rosen, Tokyo

 

What is happening here? Is it okay for me to have seen it? And even: Why is he showing this to me? These are the creeping then long-lingering questions that made Motoyuki Daifu’s photos stick with me.

Motoyuki first gained attention with his Family series, which depicted the cramped, cluttered, aggressively intimate living conditions of his family’s living quarters. Homes in Japan tend to be intensely private environments, so peering into this hidden world felt almost like an invasion. Was it acceptable to see these secrets? What did his family think?

Lovesody documented a six-month romance between Motoyuki and a young single mother he dated while she was pregnant with her second child. Again, the pictures are raw to the point of discomfort….