The pandemic of 2020 has brought about a great deal of change in our lives. Many people living here in New York City have left this place where they have lived for many years. One of my acquaintances, an artist and his wife, decided to leave the United States, where they had lived for 25 years since they were high school students, and return to Japan. Just before they left New York, they held a small good-bye party. I met Yuji Agematsu at a small gathering held in a park at night in the midst of the Corona disaster.
He and his partner, also a photographer, wandered in, but his appearance and the air he exuded were quite different from the young artists gathered there. I had heard from the artist and his wife that Yuji had a deep connection with Nam June Paik, so I immediately spoke to him. Nam June Paik was one of my high school idol I worshipped.
That is how my relationship with Yuji began. We met several times, though not often, through his partner, a photographer, and talked about many things. Unlike the conversations with young artists who tend to dream, his talks were filled with the wisdom and common sense of everyday life. As I was fed up with the arrogant egos and lack of logical thinking in the words of these so-called artists every time I met them, I felt somewhat comforted by our conversations.
One day, when I showed him some of the photos I had taken in the past, he made me a proposal: he wanted me to photograph his studio in Dumbo, which he had used for over 30 years. Land prices in New York had risen dramatically in decades, and there was a strong possibility that the studio in Dumbo would soon have to be vacated. He wanted to document the state of the studio before that day came. I immediately agreed to do it.
This project documents the accumulation of time and change over the past 30 years in Yuji Agematsu's studio. Yuji is now beginning to organize and move his work, and his studio will continue to change as he does so.This project is a record of that movement and change, and will end when everything in the studio has been removed from the space.
