Content note: Rope art / Shibari imagery may be triggering for some.
The Shibari Story was made in Tokyo during a week-long immersive trip to experience and photograph Japanese photographic culture, set in a private studio and performed by Hajime Kinoko, a shibari artist, and his collaborator, Misaki Kaneko. I captured the choreography of restraint: the stillness, the process, the connection between the artists.
Gold light against shoji screens and a hanging bamboo pole. The same light on rope and skin through the slow work of tying and untying. An upside-down figure at the culmination of the performance. And the aftermath: rope marks, socks, coils left on tatami. Restraint takes time. I was interested in what passed between the performers, not what it became.
