Cowboy in the Far-West
Furisode San (Apprentice Geisha), 2009
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
High School Girls, 2009
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Convenience Store Staff, 2009
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Train Station Security, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Street Performers, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Archers, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Maid Cafe Maids, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Yamanba, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Professional Wrestlers, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Pleasure Boat Men, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Pearl Divers, 2009
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Kindergarteners, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Home Robots, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Office Ladies, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Chindon ya (Sandwich Men), 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Harajuku Girls, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Gothic Lolitas, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Karaoke Staff, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Fried Food Vendors, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Host Club, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Train Conductors, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Police, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Jinrikisha Drivers, 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Seamen, 2007
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Untitled (silhouette), 2006
chromogenic print
Cowboy in the Far-West
Portrait with Traditional American Food, 2007
chromogenic print
Adventures of the
Kimono Cowboy in the
Far-West
When friends were visiting me in Tokyo, they saw two ladies dressed in kimonos sitting across from us in a cafe.
One of my friends said:
‘Wouldn't the world be so much nicer if everyone wore their traditional clothes all the time?’
And I replied, ‘But that would mean that we would have to dress as cowboys day in and day out.’
How do our outward appearances affect the way that we meet and connect with other people?
I traveled Japan for several years as the 'Kimono Cowboy' photographing myself alongside real people with distinctive outward appearances associated with their place in Japanese society. Each time I went out to meet someone new for the project, I became the Kimono Cowboy from the moment I left home until the moment I returned; using this transformation as a way to connect with others.
The project is intentionally visually systematic and rigid, taking its stylistic cues from the stiff posing of early American portrait studios, and lampooning the photographic cataloguing of native peoples by Western anthropologists.
By taking on the iconic American Male archetype of ‘cowboy’ and entering the frame in this record of my travels in the Japanese ‘Far-West,’ I explore the complexly interconnected relationships between two countries and scrutinize the idea of the ‘exotic other’ as well as the neccisarily implied but often less considered role of ‘Western other’.
