Seiichi Furuya's Intimate Photographic Diary at Galerie Thomas Fischer

Seiichi Furuya, a Japanese photographer born in 1950, arrived in Austria in 1973 and married Christine Gössler. In 1984, they moved with their son Komyo Klaus to Dresden and then East Berlin, where Furuya worked as a simultaneous translator. Shortly after, on October 7, 1985, his wife committed suicide during the 36th anniversary celebrations of the German Democratic Republic. His exhibition at Galerie Thomas Fischer in Berlin, running from September 9 to October 29, 2011, presents twenty photographs from 1984-1987. The images mix trivial pleasures (radishes on a sink edge), loving glances at family, and street scenes (women adjusting swimsuits). The small formats (under A3) create intimacy, avoiding the spectacular monumentalism of contemporary photography. Furuya's work lacks systematic composition; each frame is unique. His publications, such as 'Mémoires. 1984-1987' (Camera Austria, Graz, 2010), show a literary care comparable to Juergen Teller or Nobuyoshi Araki. The exhibition juxtaposes a sad plattenbau bearing the slogan 'Der Sozialismus siegt' with the dark gaze of a distressed young woman, both facing imminent ends, evoking a modest emotion from historical images.