Imaginary Relationships as an Expression of Identity

The project brief, ‘go to strangers’ places and take photographs of the two of us, acting as if we were in a relationship’ is at the origin of the photo series Strangers realised by photographer Futoshi Miyagi between 2005 and 2006.

Born in 1981 in Okinawa, Futoshi Miyagi later moved to the United States where he graduated from the City College of New York. Today he is based in Tokyo and is the co-director of the artist-run space XYZ collective. In recent years Futoshi Miyagi has exhibited at the National Museum of Art in Osaka and at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. In 2015, he was a finalist of the Nissan Art Award.

Facing interrogation

The series Strangers, published by the artist over two volumes, stages the photographer himself alongside other young gay and trans men whom he met in New York bars, through friends, or on the Internet. As he explains on his website, he was trying to think of ways he ‘could deal with the incessant interrogations on [his] sexuality and [his] seemingly hopeless shyness.’

After having explained his intentions and his process to the subjects that he met, the artist would turn up to their home. The scenes captured immortalise various fictitious moments that the artist imagines a couple might experience. The images portray the artist and his host together in the corner of a flat or side by side in bed, each in their own worlds, looking in different directions with expressions of tenderness and intrigue. ‘Each time triggered affection towards the stranger (at least I tried to feel affection). At times the physical and psychological distance between us seemed immense. Sometimes I felt a close connection to the sitter,’ explains the artist. 

These scenes emanate a feeling of malaise or awkwardness, with the artist unfolding this project in direct response to a double identity crisis that he was going through at the precise age of 23 and a half, where he found himself confronted by both his homosexuality and his condition as a foreigner in the West. Since Strangers, Futoshi Miyagi has gone on to produce video works, texts, objects, and installations that often address themes of identity, nationality, and ethnicity.

Strangers (2005-2006) is a photo series by Futoshi Miyagi, and can be accessed on his website.