Soft Focus
Soft Focus is a photographic series documenting the character of suburban Kyoto through its privacy windows.
Japan’s old imperial capital spills over with magnificent historical sites, elegant gardens and superbly preserved wooden townhouses – but there is a less obvious aspect of the city that makes it a great place to live. Almost entirely flat with plenty of quiet, narrow streets, it is perfect for cycling. During my two years as a visitor there, I got around almost entirely by bicycle. I took new and unusual routes whenever I could. Travelling this way allowed me to absorb the unique details and character of the city, and I always found myself stopping to appreciate the ‘Showa-kata itagurasu’ [昭和型板ガラス] or Showa-style glass window typical of older homes.
The interplay of glass textures with the diffused colour and form of the objects behind are captivating domestic vignettes. I kept my camera on me so I could capture these unexpected compositions as they were likely to shift, change or completely disappear from one day to the next. Sometimes the windows revealed a lot of personality, and other times they gave you just a brief glimpse into someone else’s day-to-day life.
The buildings’ exteriors told a secondary story of generational change – from the worn metal sheeting and weathered timber of the past to the more ubiquitous sprayed concrete & prefab cladding we see now. The threshold between interior and exterior, how these apertures could create a scene-within-a-scene, is always intriguing. Like the tangled threads of overhead powerlines, tiny local shops and gurgling canals, these windows are part of the medley of local life in Kyoto.
