Shigeo Gocho was a photographer.
Did you hear that? It's the morning of our departure.
The sound of a blue bird as it flies across the orange sky.
Shigeo Gocho was a photographer.
Shigeo's parents had a hardware shop in Niigata.
He was the second born son out of 3 children.
When he waa 4, he contracred spinal tunerculosis
as a complication of a cold infection.
Treatment included being tied ro a plaster bed and remaining still.
Though Shigeo eluded death he was left deformed.
His frailty let to the doctor's prognosis that he'd die before 20.
The subjects of his photos see straight through you
with a piercing gaze.
"Days" with Masao Sekiguchi, 197l
"Self and Others," 1977
"Familiar Street Scenes," 198l
Shigeo financed the publication of his photography books.
Shigeo died at his parents' house on June 2, 1983, of a heart failure.
He was only 36 years of age.
Juvenile "Hours", an uncompleted book of Shigeo's photographs.
In 1965 when he was 19, Shigeo came to Tokyo despite his family's concerns.
He entered Kuwasawa Design School in Tokyo.
The photographer Kiyoji Otsuji, got him interested in photography.
"Dear sister. Thank you for your letter. Sorry I haven't written."
"Now and then I cook meals for myself."
"I don't think I'll move out of this apartment."
"When I'm here in this dark place
I daydream anout having a darkroom, bedroom and bath."
"But improving my photography skills is more urgent."
"If I wasn't so weak, I'd like to be a photographer's assistant."
"But actually I need an assistant to help me on shoots."
"So it's unlikely that I could be anyone's apprentice."
"I'll have to become a photographer without that experience."
"I think I said that I'd decided not to bother Mr. Otsuji anymore."
"But I lost my resolve by April and visited him."
"As usual we hardly spoke but his forced disinterest was unbearable."
"Maybe I was just being overly sensitive."
"When I was leaving he gave me some expired rolls of color film."
"He told me to use them if they were still good and he was quiet again."
"Choosing his words carefully, he told me just to go out and shoot."
"I saw hia point and left soon after.
"I haven't written to Mother. Give my love to her."
"When I don't write, it means that I'm doing well."
"I'm not thinking of coming home soon."
"If I find part-time or full-time work"
"I might come home. I'll let you know."
"Best wishes to everybody."
"Shigeo."
"It snowed in April and the May holidays will soon be here"
"it's like a sweet spring breeze is blowing around me."
"Next year there will be the US treaty and the Expo 70."
"Everybody around me is excited with the chaos up ahead."
"As of me, I'm busy paving the way to a career in photography."
"I've decided not to exhibit my photos randomly anymore."
"In particular I won't submit photos to pictorials."
"The reason for this is that my photos aren't suited to magazines."
"My photos are best appreciated when they're looked at carefully."
"Next to nudes or commercial photos my photos are overshadowed."
"My photos make no assertions or statements."
"I like to capture beauty that is so subtle that it could be overlooked."
"I don't know if you can see what I intend to capture."
"I don't know if anybody sees it."
Town
Produced by Shigeo Gocho, Toahio Teramoto and Kazuto Miura
"If I end up being a third-rate photographer, I'll quit."
"I'd lose my reason to live if I was that bad."
"It'd also make it meaningless rhat I met Mr. Otsuji."
"A photographer's worth is not his fame."
"The best ones study humans, their lives and the unknown."
"We don't venture because there are roads."
"Roads go where we have ventured."
"Now I'm quite desperate."
"I need a job so I can make a living."
"I want to earn enough in 2 weeka for a month's expenses.
"I want to spend my days off on creative things like books and movies."
"I should be able to support myself soon."
"I'd appreciate it if you explained this to the rest of the family."
"I feel anxious and preoccupied with life in general."
"I don't plan to have any gallery exhibitions."
"All I want is to make books of my photographs. Nothing else."
"Can you tell Mother not to worry so much about me?"
"Take care of yourself, Sister. From Shigeo."
Days
It happened a long time ago.
Back when I was 4 and was forced to lie in bed.
Day after day I lied still on the cold plaster bed.
All I could see was the ceiling
with a hole in the center. That was my boring existence.
Then I started to develop a strange relationship with a round mirror
of about 20 centimeters in diameter.
I called it "he."
In the mornings he cast sunlight on me and made shadows.
He was my loyal servant who kept his eye on every object in the room.
He sometimes jumped across the garden
to get children and other things from the street.
With senses keener than mine he brought back his prey.
But his prey was unsubstantial and ethereal.
I didn't know if the reflected objects were upside down or not.
As if I was on a virtual merry-go-round.
"The summer Sun is tender and as wonderful as a blue sky. "
"The Sun's heat makes me realize how severe life can be. "
Perspiration gives me a sense of life's pleasures."
"Is this what growing up feels like?"
"And that's why the Sun keeps shining down on us... "
These words were written by a 14-year-old girl
who I promised I'd photograph one day.
She was a girl straight out of a picture book for children.
Shortly after she sent me this letter
her life changed drastically as though a storm passed through it.
Her peaceful life would soon come to an end.
It started when she got a boyfriend, a year younger than her.
There was a rumor that the boy hung out with a local gang.
Her class teacher advised her to stay away from the boy.
Her teachers and parents cajoled her and then punished her.
In this vortex of change she underwent a transformation.
People used to adore her.
She had loved school but she stopped going and ran away from home.
In the middle of her adolescence -
she abandoned her wish to go to a music academy.
She was like a lost ship with a broken compass.
I missed the chance to photograph her
for my series entitled, "Self and Others."
But the drama she went through exemplified
the theme of relationships I had for "Self and Others."
Reciprocation, perspectives and distance in relationships.
The context of her life helped articulate the initial idea I'd had.
"Persons"
"Preoccupation with people and their lives. "
"The cycle of life in the family circle."
"Accidental encountera with strangers."
"The experiences at the mental hoapital."
"The beginning of a life."
"Death < Dead bodies"
"1000 limited copies to be printed."
It's the year 1981.
Eleventh of January.
The time is 7:30 pm.
Good morning, hello, good evening.
A - I - U - E - O.
What's the
weather forecast for tomorrow?
How's the weather tomorrow?
Hello, do you hear me?
How doea my voice sound to you?
"Now it's mid Autumn and the mornings and evenings are chilly."
"How's everybody?"
"Thanks for your letter and everything else."
"This has been my hardest year in Tokyo."
"The months before the operation, the operation itself and after..."
"Every aspect of it burdened me with anxiety."
"Some say that food tastes different after a big operarion."
"As for me, I stopped having bouts of depression.
"I want to recover one day sooner."
"I think I can start my life anew."
"In regards to Farher"
"I want to advise him to have a medical examination."
"When he visited me in September there was something different about him."
"I think he is somewhat aware of his condition too."
"Nothing is more valuable than health in a man's life."
"When one of my photos featured in a magazine after I'd graduared
"Father always looked at it proudly, as I recall."
"Poor Father sacrificed himself to provide for his family"
"in the chaos of the post-war years."
"An hour before I went inro the operation room"
"he cried so much, big tears welled from his eyes."
"I ended up comforting him"
"as if he was the one who was having the operation."
"Mother restrains her emotions so she doesn't upset others."
"If I'd just been with Mother, it would have been me crying."
"Because Father cried, I went calmly into the operation room."
"I went back and forth between life and death."
"When I try to remember that time, it's like a movie scene in my mind."
"As it all comes back, tears drop as I write this letter."
"If I feel well in November, I'll come home."
"My regards to all."
"Shigeo Gocho."
This is the best photograph of us but actually...
we never liked it much at the time.
Compared to other photos of me, I look sullen in that one.
It's black and white and gloomy...
I didn't like my expression. It reminds me of my sulky side.
So I couldn't appreciate this photo then.
In retrospect, I'm pleaaed Shigeo Gocho took our photo.
But I didn't like it then. I didn't want it to be in Self and Others.
There are things I'd rather forget.
It's like he took a snapshor of the things I wanted to forget.
I think he told you to put your arm around me.
Right.
At rhat time we weren't really ready for that.
Looking back, he probably sensed how awkward we were togerher.
He knew what was going on, so he took the photo.
Shigeo Gocho gave me some of the photos he shot of me.
This is the one I dislike the most.
"How are you?" It's been a while since I last wrote."
"I m settling into the new apartment, it's better than the last one."
"I have a bath now, this is happiest thing in my 10 years in Tokyo."
"I'm writing because I have another favor to ask of you."
"I'm going to publish another book of my photos next spring."
"I've picked most of the photos."
"Mr. Otsuji will write a preface by the end of this year."
"The title is Self and Others."
"The theme is people including the phoros of you and Toshi."
"I'll turn 30 on Novemner 2, tomorrow."
"I'm amazed that I'm still alive."
"It's also a good time to punctuate my life."
"I've come to a point in my life to leave my mark."
"Self and Others is a risk I have to take to prove myself."
"And I believe that it'a a risk that will be an achievement."
"Minton House Apartment"
It's the year 1981.
8:15 am on the eighteenth of March.
Good morning, hello, good evening.
A - I - U - E - O.
Do - Re - Mi - Fa - So - La - Ti - Do.
How's the weather tomorrow?
Hello, do you hear me?
How do these things sound to you?
Directed by Makoto Sato
Subtities by Dean Shimauchi
Subtitles produced by Passo Passo, ltd.