Untitled

In this photograph by the Japanese artist Mayumi Hosokura, what immediately stands out is his use of light and colour. The cool blue tones create a sterile and cold atmosphere. This has an alienating effect on the two subjects, which we normally would not perceive as unnatural. But there’s also something vulnerable about the image: how the white, overexposed hands, devoid of all colour and liveliness, tenderly embrace the bird and hold it so that it hides the naked body in the background. As other images in the series show, beauty and impermanence are important themes in Hosokura’s work. Beneath the surface of alienating and mysterious images, Hosokura often depicts a tender fusion of man and nature.

Mayumi Hosokura was one of the artists selected for Foam Talent 2011. Her series Kazan was presented in Foam Magazine #28 Talent Issue and the accompanying talent exhibition.