The concept of "Dogging" is not unknown in western society, especially in recent years with Channel Four's Documentary "Dogging Tales" (2013) and other references to these acts in pop culture such as Fascinating Aida's sing "Dogging" (2011). "The Park" (2007) is a series of night time infrared photographs taken by Kohei Yoshiyuki in several central Tokyo Parks of couples and Vouyers in the late 70's. The photographs were at the time very contentious, and did not hold well with conservative Japanese value's, but later found appreciation and were exhibited in multiple exhibition across the UK and the US.
Yoshiyuki's photographs are documentary in style, raw, unedited and imperfect. Using Kodaks newly released infrared flash, he went ventured into the darkness to photograph the voyers and in doing so became a voyer himself watching these primal acts of lust, desire and momentary joy. In his photographs it is sometimes hard to tell where one body starts and another ends as limbs poke out of all directions, hands reaching and touching, a hand disappearing into the the underwear of a body lying underneath, feet pointed up into the air. To some these photos may be disturbing, disgusting even, to others intriguing, a mystery, and to many as well, exciting, inviting.
The image I have used above, while not one of the more commonly use images from the series, spoke to me for a number of reasons. The contention between the sequenced and formulaic city lights, and the dispersed light of the flash, separated by the darkness and that cuts through the two parts of the photo, is a clear visual nod to the separation from societal norms. At the same time, its as if appears as a spotlight, lighting them up for all to see like a show, which is pretty much on the nose of what this is, though a show with a much larger audience than this couple had maybe anticipated. There is also a sense of the uncanny here, in fact I find this in many of the photographs from this series. The people, their bodies, almost seem flung into the scene, almost reminiscent of corpses. In this example, one wrapped in a black mass while another shining bright wraps their arms around. Its almost as if two people have died together in their sleep, in the void far from the city. There is a sense of mystery, a sense of the unkown, do we really know whats happening here? are we really sure of what we are looking at? sometimes these bodies barely look human, but we recognise them. There are of course other images in the series that are every bit as conspicuous, particularly in the second and third parts of the book, where in the second the inclusion of gay couples and clear visuals of sexual acts draw the curtains back on the nature of these images, while the ever present yet non engaging voyeurs stand to the sides.
In an earlier image, a couple perform their show in a bush while a man to the right fiddles with his zipper, on my first glance of this photo, it seemed to me he was staring straight at the camera, not in an aggressive or confrontational manner, more as if we are here together, though I believe he is not looking at the camera on closer inspection. Perhaps this is a sign of my own feelings while looking at the images. In all honesty its a face I have seen before, a moment I have shared for real, being in a dark place, a night club in my instance watching a similar interaction from afar. As I have mentioned earlier in my blog, having worked in gay mens clubs, immersed myself in the culture of sex and fetish, and explored the Dark rooms, I almost feel at home with these images, that might go some way to explaining my feelings to some of the articles I have read regarding this series of work.
In a November 2007 edition of Modern Painters Magazine (Latimer 2007), an article describes Yoshiyuki's desires (In terms of his photographic intent) as "Strange and unfathomable" as the denizens of the park, and indeed the preceding article paints The Park as an otherworldly series of photos, as if the writer simply can not beehive that this would ever really happen, and that perhaps this is all just fantasy. I feel that the writer has failed to understand, or is perhaps even deliberately not understanding, that this kind of behaviour is not totally uncommon across the world and particularly in western society, and as such his comprehension of Yoshiyuki's work is somewhat mystified, of course this is assumption based on my part and is entirely down to my own reading between the lines. However, six years later a Guardian article published in 2012 by Sean O'Hagan to me cuts straight to the core of the photos without any kind of mystification, that we are all vouyers and simply by looking at Yoshiyuki's photos we become complicit. The curators of the 2010 Tate Exhibition "Exposed" seemed to have pushed this concept further by displaying the photographs in a darkened corridor where only the images were lit. Visitors would stand in the darkness, obscured just like the voyers in the park and just like Yoshiyuki.
The concept of being complicit, involved, engaged in these actions and this voyerism is something I can take back into my work. Perhaps my favourite image from the last module, was of a man in a leather mask staring back at the camera from afar, confronting the viewer and daring them to look. Infact voyeurism has been linked to my work since the beginning of my study by myself and by others and seems to be a topic I cant escape, so perhaps its time to embrace it.
Exposed: Voyerism, Surveilance and the Camera. 2010. (Exhibition) Tate Modern 28 May - 3 October 2010.
Fascinating Aida. (2011). 'Fascinating Aida - Dogging' [Online Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSaV3YUGiM8 [Accessed: 10 November 2019)
Latimer, Q. (2007) ‘Kohei Yoshiyuki: Yossi Milo Gallery’, Modern Painters, 19(9), p. 93. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.falmouth.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aft&AN=505246233&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 10 November 2019).
Maguire, L. (2013). Dogging Tales. [TV Documentary] Available at: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dogging-tales [Accessed 10 November 2019].
O’Hagan, S. (2019). Park life: how photographer Kohei Yoshiyuki caught voyeurs in the act. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/sep/20/kohei-yoshiyuki-voyeurs-liverpool-biennial [Accessed 10 Nov. 2019].
Yoshiyuki, K. (2007). Kohei Yoshiyuki, the park.
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