In the year that social distancing and self-isolation have entered our daily vernacular, Michael Hoppen Gallery is delighted to present Private Scenes, an exhibition of Masahisa Fukase’s late photography which has never appeared more transgressive or relevant than today.
‘Berobero’ - an onomatopoeic word referring to both tongues and licking – is the title Fukase gave to his self-portraits in which he touches tongues with friends and strangers alike. Mostly shot in bars around Shinjuku in Tokyo, Fukase’s comrades display a range of reactions; Some close their eyes, strike dramatic poses, laugh or abandon themselves to the act. Their responses to this provocative, performative display of intimacy are heightened today, when kissing has become a high risk or even forbidden activity.
'There is no difference between the me who does the looking and the person who is being looked at. I started to ask myself what I would look like if the looked-at me also became part of the photograph [...] The subject who looks is also the object looked at. I started to ask myself what I would look like if the looked-at me also became part of the photograph.’
- Fukase, 1991.
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