A new show in Kyoto presents a trilogy of projects exploring the late Masahisa Fukase's close relationship with his feline friends.
— mapping out the photographer’s feline affinities, which played out in increasingly conceptual ways. In fact, Masahisa’s early cat work has generated particular interest recently, courtesy of last year’s release of the bookthan awe.
“It was hot in Tokyo,” Masahisa recalled in his diary. “I hopped on the Azusa Number 8 train and escaped to the relative cool of the Yamanashi. This was Sasuke’s first trip away with me. He was rather quiet, maybe because he was nervous, but he didn’t need to relieve himself at all. Since he was so tiny, he rode for free.” Masahisa went on: “For a common cat like Sasuke, the mountain lodge was paradise… His face took on a taut, alert expression.
”. On one occasion, we even find Masahisa employing a POV angle, framing a photograph of pigeons just behind Sasuke’s pricked ears, as if he is the cat.“Sasuke is a big yawner”, Masahisa attested. “In October, I decided to take shots of nothing else but him yawning. As he only yawns after he’s had a snooze, I had to bed him down, get him off to sleep, set up the shot, then wake him up, camera at the ready.
What’s indisputable is that, for Masahisa, taking a photograph of something was the closest approximation to touching it . In fact, Masahisa once described his eyes as “tentacles”, entwining with “things”. When the