Masaru Goto’s photo exhibition “Remorseful Obsessions” from November 3rd to 30th, 2019

10/18/2019

Reminders Photography Stronghold is pleased to present Masaru Goto’s photo exhibition “Remorseful Obsessions” from November 3rd to 30th, 2019.

Masaru participated in the photobook-making workshops and masterclasses held in 2015 and 2018 and worked on this work. The story “SHIKI”, which focused on his mother that has been spent more than five years, turns into his history when he looked at himself through his mother and changed into “Remorseful Obsessions”. During the exhibition period, the photographer will continue to make a handmade photo book.
We look forward to seeing you at the exhibition.

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

“Remorseful Obsessions”

The story begins with my discovery of a box of mementos of my father, who left home when I was young.

In the box I found a photo frame, and behind the photo in the frame I found another photo, a black-and-white shot of a young child. I was shocked when I saw it. And I became obsessed with its meaning.

After my father disappeared, I was raised by my mother, but I dropped out of high school, and while I felt guilty about betraying my mother’s expectations, at the same time I dreamed about a larger world, so I left home. I was 17 years old.

After moving around in Japan for several years, I went overseas at the age of 21. I wandered around Latin America, then landed a job as a photographer with a documentation team for a human rights organization in northern Colombia. I shot hundreds of albums of photographs of corpses and artifacts as documentary evidence for families who were looking for missing relatives.

At the same time, I had started a conversation with my mother via letter. My mother asked me to let her know if I got in trouble, and asked me to not be like my father.

In 2011, I learned that my mother had been diagnosed with cancer, with a life expectancy of only one year. I returned to Japan to support her, and I tried to re-establish a relationship between us, in part by taking photographs of her and making a record of her final year.

After my mother’s death, sorting through her possessions, I found three family albums she had been hiding for more than half a century. It was a family history recorded by my father. Going through the images, I met my father again, years after his death.

Nearly all my life I have been traveling, in part to escape from family, trauma, violence, loss, war and death. Remorseful Obsessions is a story about family and guilt that I have survived while so many friends have been killed and regret that I did not build stronger relationships with my parents, and now it is too late , and it is the story of my obsession with recording extreme situations that I felt could help me find peace.

Masaru Goto

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

Exhibition Outline
Date: November 3rd to 30th, 2019.
Opening hours: 1pm – 7pm
Venue: Reminders Photography Stronghold
*Opening reception and artist talk from 6pm on November 3rd
Support: The Grant for Arts and Cultural activities in Sumida

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

©︎Masaru Goto / Remorseful Obsessions

Profile:
Masaru Goto
Photographer, Director of Reminders Photography Stronghold (RPS)
Born in 1966, he moved to the USA in 1989. After traveling in Central and South America, he started as a photographer’s carrier with the Human Rights Defense Group in Colombia. In 1997, he moved to Asia and focused on social issues, such as civil war, child trafficking, and HIV/AIDS. He involved many human rights campaigns with human rights organizations internationally. He was awarded International Fund for Documentary Photography (IFDP)/2002, Ueno Hikoma Award/02, World Health Organization Asia Award, Sagamihara Photography Award/05. He established a photography institution, Reminders Photography Stronghold (RPS) in 2012. http://www.masarugoto.com/

Exhibition, News