The work of photographer Atsushi Fujiwara portrays
different themes within each of his projects, however the three projects that
he has worked on nevertheless resonate with each other. All three of his
photographic projects were either set in, or related to, islands: ‘Nangoku-sho’ captures the southwestern tip of Japanese Kyushu
island, inspired by Nangoku-sho an
anthology of waka poems that his
grandfather wrote; ‘Butterfly had a Dream’ traces a path of a woman
originally from an island off the coast of Tokyo; and his latest project ‘Poet
Island’ which has been primarily released as a photobook, contains a collection
of photographs taken on an island sanatorium where Hansen’s disease patients were
isolated. But his eyes are not precisely directed upon such a history of the
island being a sanatorium of once incurable disease. Rather, the landscape, seascape,
buildings no longer in use, insects and statues to the miscellaneous aspects of
the island are captured through the eyes and works of the poet Kaijin Akashi, who
suffered from the disease and resided on the island. Bringing together a poet’s
life and the history of the island of Hansen disease through the medium of
photography, Fujiwara created another image for this subject, which has more commonly
been explored within the documentary context.
Atsushi Fujiwara, from the series of 'Poet Island'
