Video: Vacuum Packed Lovers: The Carnal Love Photo Project by Haruhiko Kawaguchi
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Japanese photographer Haruhiko Kawaguchi, known by his pseudonym, literally packs couples in love in plastic bags 100x150x74 centimeters in size. The participants in the photo shoot hug, trying to snuggle as close to each other as possible, and hold their breath while Kawaguchi wraps them in plastic, sucks air out of the bag with a vacuum cleaner, and finally photographs.
In order to take a picture, the photographer has only 10-20 seconds at his disposal. Any delay in such an extravagant situation would entail health risks for the models. As a result of the listed manipulations, very strange, but in some ways definitely cute photographs are obtained that evoke a rich spectrum of associations, from a sensual love scene to frozen chicken packed in polyethylene.
About eighty couples took part in the project called Flesh Love. Kawaguchi met many of them in the nightclubs of his native Tokyo.
“When you hold a loved one in your arms, sometimes you want to literally dissolve inside,” the photographer shares. “To convey that feeling, I filmed couples in small, or even tight spaces, such as motel rooms or bathrooms.”
But this didn't seem enough to Kawaguchi:
The photographer says that the women he worked with tolerated the packaging much better than the men. Women usually remained calm, while representatives of the strong half of humanity were prone to panic struggle for a breath of air and bouts of claustrophobia. One of the men even wet himself in the process. The ladies, however, were most worried about how they would turn out in the photograph.
“I tried it on myself,” says Kawaguchi, “and felt overwhelming fear. The pressure of the film is getting stronger. The two lovers grow closer until they finally become one being. For me, vacuum packaging is just a tool. What's really important is the connection between the two people."
Ultimately, any art, even the most eccentric, is created in the name of love. The "packed" Kawaguchi lovers or the peacefully sleeping couples in the black and white photographs of Paul Schneggerberger are just different ways of expressing the same eternal feeling.
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