shashasha

"I need someone is both the title of this series and symbolic of the stance I take in my photographic activities.
Since the first time I picked up a camera, I have continuously photographed people from the closest of friends to complete strangers. In the process of doing that, the desire to "squarely face my subject" has only gotten bigger to the degree that, at some point in time, I started visiting various people in their homes in order to take their picture.

This series, entitled I need someone, was and is, for me and my subjects, an exercise in confirming "oneself in someone else's heart".
It is my belief that we are all lonely. No matter how happy one may be or how content one may be with his/her world, everyone harbors a "sense of loneliness" in their heart, which they can forget about if they can feel themselves in someone else's heart.” […]

My generation was born after Japan's postwar economic resurgence and did not enjoy the benefits of Japan's real-estate bubble. We toiled with fiercely competitive testing to get into university and were rewarded with a drawn-out hiring freeze. We were born in tough times […] Day after day, it is a struggle to live with the insecurity of an uncertain future and the almost suffocating feeling of hopelessness that weighs upon us.

Still, I want to continue connecting with others, continue to see the light and continue to take pictures of my beloved brethren who live in these same times, in order to leave "something" tangible behind.
That is my mission as a photographer.
I wish for my photos to be the "light" for others."

— from Kenji Kobayashi’s afterword