““The ‘academic’ discourses tended to underestimate those female artists and professional photographers’ works as ‘girl play’. The preceding study describes it as ‘self-centered’ or ‘self-indulgent’, ‘short-sighted’, ‘emotional’, ‘no interest in social issues’, ‘no techniques’, or ‘all the same’ photos, but I totally disagree.””

— Yurie Nagashima

Interview by Qimei Fu

The nude portrait of you and your family is such a strong body of work. How did you feel about doing it back then? How did your family react to it?

I made those photos when I was a BA student, so I never thought that they would be seen by so many people all over the world like now. When I made them, I wondered how I could de-sexualize my body as a young woman with an artwork. It was a big mystery for me that society made a big deal out of the naked body, although we have all seen it and known about it enough in everyday life (you at least have your own to look at). It seems that the society (with male gaze) ‘interpreted’ the female body and put whatever meanings that they liked to ‘see’ on it, without asking questions like who she is to its owner. That kind of power has been used to manipulate women, and I was sick of it for my entire life.

So, I explain to my family why I have to make this work with them, and they said ‘Okay’. I don’t think that they fully understood what I was talking about, but they knew that I needed to do it to overcome my struggles. I was a troubled kid…

Yurie Nagashima, Self-portrait (mother #36), gelatin silver print, 1993 — Yurie Nagashima, *Self-portrait (mother #36)*, gelatin silver print, 1993

Besides photography work, you also write a sociological book, From Their Onnanoko Shashin To Our Girly Photo, about female photographers in Japan in the 90s. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Um, it’s not easy to explain the book, but I will try. The book was originally my dissertation I wrote in 2014 and 2015 for a master’s degree in Sociology. I wrote the book to discuss how misinterpretation can kill a body of work or a whole art movement, especially women artists. I went over discourses of art writers and critiques published from 1990 to 2014 and picked up those that played a big part in constructing the discourse/category called Onnanoko-Shashin, which means Girl photography, then set forward a counterargument to each one of them.

In the 90’s we had a significant photographic/subcultural current of young females who used photography to express themselves. First, some female photographers emerged in the Japanese photo community, and then they became role models for young girls and females. However, the ‘academic’ discourses tended to underestimate those artists and professional photographers’ works as ‘girl play.’ The preceding study describes it as ‘self-centered’ or ‘self-indulgent’, ‘short-sighted’, ‘emotional’, ‘no interest in social issues’, ‘no techniques’, or ‘all the same’ photos, but I totally disagree. So, I thought what it should be also described from my perspective, who was taking a part of the very movement, not just let those much older, full-of-themselves critiques speak for us.

Yurie Nagashima, Self-portrait (father #13), gelatin silver print, 1993 — Yurie Nagashima, *Self-portrait (father #*13), gelatin silver print, 1993

Can you talk about some artists you appreciate who have contributed to improving gender equality?

There are so many! I think that no one artist’s work could improve gender equality at once, so I don’t pick up any artist’s name here... Besides, I am not good at remembering people’s names. I am sure I will think like ‘Shoot, I forgot her!’ later to avoid feeling bad then…. Maybe it’s more important that each one of us do something every day? Like rainbow color cookies or outfits with hand-stitched protest. It can be small steps, but I believe that you don’t even have to be a famous artist to make a piece that can change society.

Yurie Nagashima, Myself (Rendez-vous), C-print, 1994 — Yurie Nagashima, *Myself (Rendez-vous),* C-print, 1994

What are you working on now?

Good question. I am not working on anything particular right now, although I feel it’s not true at the same time. I am off projects that are promised to get done, so I guess I am quite free now. I would call this phase an inhaling time.

Describe your creative process in one word.

Maze.