The un-ordinary moments in ordinary days - Kotori Kawashima (川岛小鸟)

Hey, it’s Xavier here. A little over a month ago I started a short IGTV series with an intention to share some of my favorite photographers through short videos, but soon enough I realize that I am simply too busy and too lazy to write scripts, shoot the video and edit it. It’s just too much work for a lazy bum like myself. (laughs)

Then, I came across @hharryhho ‘s written work about him sharing his favorite photographers on Instagram “Guide” and dude, I didn’t even know this feature exists on Instagram! So here I am, writing my first piece talking about one of my favorite photographer, Kotori Kawashima, and specifically one of his most prized work named 「未来ちゃん」 (Mirai Chan).

Kotori Kawashima, born in year 1980, Japan. Kawashima obtained his bachelor’s degree in French literature from the First Department of Literature at Waseda University. After his graduation, Kawashima studied under Genqui Numata.

Over the past few years, he published a series of photography work including BABY BABY (2007), Mirai chan (2011), Myojo (2014), Oyasumi kami tachi (2014) a collaborative work with Shunter Tanikawa, First Album (2016), and Ai no Tainan (2017).

Today, we will take a look at Kawashima’s [Mirai Chan].

This little girl named Mirai was a child of Kawashima’s friend. Kawashima first met little Mirai in year 2009 when she was only two years old, and Kawashima knew she was the one unique model he was looking for.

Sometimes cute and bubbly, and some other times she can be otherworldly beautiful.

Mirai’s nature and her young naïve-ness are the perfect quality a young girl could possess for Kawashima to capture all the beautiful moments he envisioned, painting his creative canvas. Eventually, he arranged a two-year worth of Mirai’s photo into a photobook and named it 𝘔𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘪 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯.

In this photobook, Kawashima encapsulated every bits and moments of Mirai chan’s curiosity towards the world, the pureness of her emotions in everyday routines, the excitement we see in her eyes when she had fun, as well as the genuine tears flowing down her cheeks for god-knows-what reason.

Even though some of the photos do leave a lot of space for us to fill in the gap, I do find this “incompleteness” beautiful. Simply because it gives us the freedom to relate and localize what is left incomplete in the photo according to our background story, our experiences, our upbringing, and our memories. This makes Mirai personal to every each of us under Kawashima’s lens.

You might not know why did Mirai cry in this photo, but it is the blankness that makes this photo unique to every one of us. We might have different stories in our repertoire that contributes on how we think 𝙬𝙝𝙮 she is crying. Also, her crying face, does it bring back memories?

Not just the thought process and emotions I mentioned above that Kawashima tries to evoke in their audiences, the choice of camera angle, or rather the perspective Kawashima wants us to “experience” the photos does make me feel “involved”. It is like I’m right there watching Mirai chan doing her stuff. I am not just any unrelated individual looking from afar, an invisible voyeur that has no relation to her. Instead, Kawashima’s subtle yet deliberate placement of angles does make you, the audience, felt emotionally attached to Mirai. She is not just a normal child, she is someone you know, probably a doppelganger with different facial features that you’ve seen somewhere before. Or even more, you are seeing yourself in the photo.

This photo reminds me of myself when I was around 5 or 6 years old. One morning, I climbed onto the window railings and hid behind the curtain. My mother couldn’t find me anywhere in the entire house because I hid there for almost 20 minutes. She almost called the police. Good times.

Of course, her cuteness confirm got contribute to the popularity of this photobook wan. 𝙇𝙤𝙤𝙠 at her eyes!

There are always more to discover in Kawashima’s photos, but I’ll stop my typing here, otherwise it would be too much of a drag to read. (laughs)

Attached below are Kawashima’s Instagram handle and his website. Feel free to take a look at his work and see whether his photos evoke the same emotion like it did to me.

Xavier.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kotori_kawashima/

Website: http://www.kawashimakotori.com/

An article about Mirai (It's in mandarin tho): https://www.beauty321.com/post/17006

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All photos used in this blog are owned by Kotori Kawashima. I do not earn the right to use it for business purposes.