Price (tax incl.): S:￥55,000 M:￥110,000 L:￥330,000

Mayu is a Japanese ballerina working in New York. As immigrants from Japan, we shared a similar path, settling in the city on our own after a few years in Europe. In New York, we experienced varied degrees of self-doubt, alienation, depression and at times regret, ultimately followed by a sense of reawakening and rediscovery of our inner selves. This series aims to convey parts of this jarring experience we independently shared in a foreign country. Dancers usually perform on stage, but as I shot Mayu at unorthodox sites for a dancer, the combination of a ballerina and outdoor scenery produced a sense of dissonance. To emphasize this effect, I had to work differently from a typical dancer’s portrait so I deliberately set out to shoot her as an object in frame. I kept asking her to express something different from the beautiful formal ballet. Everything she does as a dancer is so beautiful, so I asked her not to be too beautiful.