An interview with Kumi Oguro
Interviewed by Aliki Smith
Kumi Oguro’s photographic world is a quiet otherworld where contradictions converge - where fragility meets destruction, playfulness lingers with sensuality, and presence slips ever so easily into absence. Born in Japan and based in Antwerp since the late 1990s, Oguro has carved her own contemplative path through analogue, square-format film. With a deliberate, intimate process, carefully staged yet open to the unforeseen, she invites us into suspended dreams that are charged with tension, ambiguity and an unmistakable otherworldliness. Through this refusal of simple interpretation, Oguro has created a body of work that is as visually arresting as it is enduring.
In this conversation, Oguro reflects on the origins of her artistic journey, the emotional landscapes that ignite her imagination, and the subtle evolutions that have guided her long-running projects. We also discuss her collaborations on two photobooks and the still-poignant fictional essence of “Hester.” Each answer offers a window into what makes Oguro’s vision both timeless and deeply human.
Kumi, you have an impressive CV with both study and hands-on experience in photography. What first drew you to photography?
Although I cannot really pinpoint a specific moment or encounter, I think my interest in art began when I was around 19 or 20 years old. I was partly influenced by my friends who shared the same kind of interests as me in art, music, and films.
Gradually, I started to feel inspired to create something myself. I was a terrible student in high school art class. I couldn't draw or paint! Honestly, photography seemed an easy way to make my own art.
I bought my first camera and started photographing my surroundings, sometimes in black and white, which I found "artistic". Of course, years later, I realised that anyone can take photographs, but it's so hard to find your own style.
What was your first camera? And how do you think the tools of photography influence or impact the experience and outcome?
I am really not a camera freak nor a tech-person. I've never spent much time researching what to buy. My first camera was some Canon EOS (analogue, of course), with autofocus and auto-exposure. Easy to use for beginners.
After gaining some basic knowledge of photography while studying in London, I switched to a second-hand, all manual Nikon that I found on the school bulletin board. After a couple of years, I wanted to try a medium format camera for better image quality. I was quite convinced that it had to be square format, partly because of my discovery of the work by Francesca Woodman.
Then, at a local photo fair, I found a 6x6 format Bronica, produced around 1970. I'd never heard of the brand, but it felt good to have this camera. Since then, it has become my artistic partner for more than 20 years.
This is a very basic camera, with no battery or built-in light meter. This makes me work slowly and carefully. The square format is very specific and has always been an important element of my work. I just can't imagine switching to any other format.
The square format. 6x6. Beautiful. Do you think Francesca Woodman’s work influenced your own? And if yes, how? Additionally, have you had any other influences?
To a certain degree, it definitely did. I still look at her work from time to time and am always impressed by its intense beauty.
It is not that I started staged photography after discovering her work, but still, it did give me an indication of how to create another world within a square, using the female body (in her case, her own), the space and props.
My influences come from a wide range of art forms beyond photography, including films, (dance-)theatre, literature and even music. If I had to name one person, it would be David Lynch.
In his films, he often creates a world that cannot be described or explained using words or logic. I feel a strong affinity with it.
I can absolutely see the David Lynch influence in your work. It feels otherworldly - so much is communicated through what remains unseen, just as much as what is revealed. Your images often obscure your subjects’ faces, leaving us suspended in time, uncertain whether we’re witnessing a moment paused or one yet to begin. What draws you to the otherworldliness and tensions between presence and absence, fragility and destruction?
I'm glad that you can describe my work so perfectly!
Duality is a concept to which I am very attached. With my images, I avoid presenting clear stories or explanations. I don't want them to have one particular, simple characteristic such as: violent, heart-warming, erotic or calm... you name it. For me it's more appealing to balance on a thin line between different atmospheres, without falling on one side or the other.
The reason I keep photographing only women is, to me, they are the ones who embody contradictory elements such as fragility and destruction, playfulness and sensuality or sadness and absurdity.
I am also full of duality and contradiction. On the one hand, I want my images to remain obscure and hard to understand. I feel awkward having to explain my work. But on the other hand, I feel as though I am screaming silently through my work. This is me, this is who and what I am!
Kumi, you got me. I experienced goosebumps reading your words. The obscurity, the tensions represented in your work, your ability to balance the intense conflict, it’s deeply moving. Earlier you spoke of working slowly and carefully. Why is this important to you? And how do you think it impacts how and what work you create?
Although I limit the actual shooting time to around three hours, I do spend a lot of time planning beforehand. I like to prepare thoroughly for what I am going to do behind the camera during the shoot. Still, I always say that 90% of the session is planned and 10% is what happens on the spot. There is always room for unexpected beauty.
I never work with an assistant. It's always just the models and me. It might be handy to have someone running around for me who measures the light (as I work with daylight, which may change during the shoot) or move the props. However, I choose for the intimate and personal atmosphere in which both the models and I can feel comfortable and relaxed.
Especially because I work with films, I tend to wait until I see an image with which I can be more or less convinced, and then shoot. Sometimes the composition or the pose of the model is different from what I had expected. In that case I simply give it up and move on. It's pointless to waste a film on shots that I know won't make it to the final selection. I believe that this also applies to digital photography.
You’re very considered in your approach to your work. Deliberate. Present. Patient. Have you found that your work has changed over the years?
Some tendencies come and go, and may return again. These changes are rather subtle, neither linear nor one-way. Some changes happen organically and almost unconsciously. However, when I feel that I'm repeating myself, I take a break and consciously redirect my focus. Again, it's never a radical change.
Though my works are for many years "on going", not different series, I can see my two books NOISE (2008) and HESTER (2021) as milestones throughout my career. Browsing through NOISE, I find that some of the works are a little immature. At the same time, many strike me as more daring. Not bad at all! I would say. My older works can sometimes inspire me, but I'm convinced that certain elements won't easily come back.
I’d love to hear about your experiences related to the publishing of NOISE (2008) and HESTER (2021). Was the process enjoyable? Demanding? Collaborative? I ask because our work can live in so many different realms - in the moment, in film, in digital spaces, on paper, in galleries and exhibitions, even on billboards like your “Candy,” currently poised at the start of the Meir shopping street in Antwerp (where you’re based). And does the form of the book hold a particular significance for you?
These two books were born in very different circumstances. My involvement in the publication of NOISE was rather passive. At the time, I had a vague fantasy of making a book one day in the (near) future. This suddenly became a reality when Fabrice Wagner, who ran a publishing house "le caillou bleu" in Brussels, approached me with a proposal to publish my book. I knew nothing about creating or publishing a photobook. I'd never even heard of a "dummy-book". My body of work wasn't particularly large yet. This book actually contains almost everything I had. We had a couple of brief meetings about the editing, paper selection, text, etc. Before I knew it, it was ready!
After the publication and related exhibitions, so many years passed, while I naively believed that a similar opportunity to make a second book would one day fall from the sky. What I didn't realise for a long time is how hard and complicated it is to have a book published, and how extremely lucky I was with NOISE.
In 2020, I finally came to the conclusion that nothing would happen unless I took some action myself. I made a selection of images and talked to a couple of professionals for advice. With a simple dummy, I approached Bruno Devos (HOPPER&FUCHS). I was really lucky again when Bruno, whom I soon realised was one of the most in-demand publishers in Belgium, believed in my project. With his help, I experienced an inspiring whole process of making a book.
Since then, I have witnessed on various occasions just how passionately this art form – photobook - is loved worldwide. It's amazing when you consider the current trend of scrolling through hundreds of images every day. A photobook never ages. It can easily travel around the world. It's intimate. Indeed, there are many different ways of showing artworks. Nothing is unimportant.
Thank you for sharing with us NOISE and HESTER. In another interview, it’s been noted that HESTER is both the title of the publication and also the name of one of the photographs featured within it - a name originally taken from a character in John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. You’ve expressed that you are “drawn to this particular fictional female, Hester, because of her extreme nature; she is an extrovert, aggressive and chaotic, but also sensitive, loving and charming. With a lot of affection, I could call all the women in my photographs ‘Hester’.” Without a face, Hester could be any one of us and she can be everything all at once. If you could say something to Hester, what would it be and why?
Yes, that's how this book came to be called "HESTER". When I considered using this as the title, I started reading A Prayer for Owen Meany again. It had been a long time since I last read it, and I wanted a refresh of my memory of the character of Hester. Then I was totally convinced. She was there, full of 'duality', which symbolised my work perfectly.
There would be no words if I should meet Hester. I would give her a big hug. That would convey more than I could say.
Your work has such a strong emotional and atmospheric pull. If you were to make a mini mixtape that captures the emotional, tonal, or/and visceral landscape of your work or your creative inner world, what three songs would be on it?
The Auteurs - The Upper Classes
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Far Gone and Out
Hole - Miss World