Hitoshi Fugo “Watchers”

Miyako Yoshinaga

[Image: "Waterfall Watcher 7" (1994) archival pigment on paper, printed 2022 © Hitoshi Fugo]

This event has ended.

Between 1994 and 2008, Hitoshi Fugo (b. 1947) took a series of head-and-shoulder portraits of anonymous people watching scenic views of popular waterfalls and observatories in Japan and the US/Canada. Fugo’s camera focuses on the person’s back, leaving the scenery blurry and abstract, allowing the viewer to enter into the spiritual realms surrounding the spectacle. Fugo pairs portraits similar in gender, age, etc. but differentiated by time and location. The juxtaposition of the two portraits in a single frame urges the viewer to further engage in comparisons. In WATCHERS, not only the photographer, but also the scenery, the watcher, and the viewer are all united by the same line of sight.