About Motohiko Hsui!

Who Is Motohiko Hsui?

Motohiko Hsui is a photographer born and raised in Japan. He studied Photography in Central Saint Martins Art and Design and London College of Communication. Whilst studying, he began piecing together his portfolio. Following this began his first fashion editorial with fashion editor Robbie Spencer for marmalade magazine in 2005, push-starting his career. After graduating from university, he moved back to Tokyo, where he grew up, in 2007. Motohiko started shooting for Japanese magazines and advertising as well as international magazines and newspapers such as Dazed and Confused, M Le Monde Magazine and New York Times. He is often inspired by what he sees in everyday life in Tokyo consequently, delivering a unique style into the fashion and documentary photography industry. Motohiko loves traveling, nature and life. His passion for making photo books also help him pursue a deeper understanding of what photography might be.

Solo Exhibitions

2013 "10FACES" Gallery Common (Tokyo)
2014 "Personal Matters" Place M (Tokyo)
"10FACES" 02 Pan of (Tokyo)
2017 "Yume Wo Miru" artless appointment gallery (Tokyo)
2018 "Deep Blue – Serena Motola" AL (Tokyo)

Group Exhibitions

2010 "101 Allegories and words to represent the world"
Primo Piano Living Gallery (Italy)
"Style" Gallery 21 (Tokyo)
2011 "Editor’s Choice" 2011 Ricoh Ring Cube (Tokyo)
"Kioku no Sakura" at Tokyo Photo
"Kioku no Sakura" at New York Photo Festival
"Secret" Ricoh Ring Cube (Tokyo)
2014 Off Print Paris
2015 Recto Verso Gallery

Books

2011 "RAIKA" (zine, self-published)
2013 "10FACES" (Self Published)
"Personal Matters" (Bemojake, London UK)
2014 "10FACES" 02 (self-published)
2016 "Yume Wo Miru" (Bemojake, London UK)
2018 "Deep Blue – Serena Motola" (Self Published)

Photography has always been an intensely private and social medium. As a holder of secrets and proclaimer of existence, it’s no surprise that voyeuristic desire has gone hand in hand with the exhibitionist impulse. People will always want to look at other people’s lives. The real challenge is to keep them looking. Eschewing the sensationalistic tone typical of the genre, Motohiko Hasui’s Personal Matters offers a varied, diaristic look into the life of a young photographer. Unapologetically private yet open, the work both reveals and conceals itself in equal measure.
From the declarative title to its Moleskin journal-like appearance (complete with a cover band and cloth bookmark), the book mimics a personal diary, but looks are deceptive. Despite the title and diary-like physical form, the pictures are decidedly reserved. Unlike the hedonistic and confessional work of Nan Goldin or Ryan McGinley, the book is filled with quiet moments of personal significance and visual delight.

Collected over a number of years, the images form a portrait of a young artist on the road absorbing the world around him. In some ways, this is welcome. The default for such diaristic work is often shock, which can be a trap – luring us in but escalating in its demands. But how does one distinguish between a photograph of great personal significance and a simple snapshot with little or no meaning for most viewers? Rather than disclose all, or titillate, Hasui’s work is cunningly transparent. These are personal moments, but like most photographs, their meaning is intensely personal. It lies on the surface but runs deep. Personal Matters is a collection of everyday snapshots by one of Japan’s most promising emerging talents in fashion photography.

However, for Hasui, personal matters more. Caught between emotional ties to his Japanese identity and an affinity to the West, Hasui captures his relationship to a place, Tokyo, and to the people who wander in and out of his life. That tease of longing for his other self outside of Tokyo is counterbalanced by the love of his wife, family, and friends who are predominant in his environment. From page to page, Hasui is continually questioning his identity and place in the world, pitting his existential desires for Western ideals against his attachment to his Japanese heritage. The result is an honest and personal documentation of contemporary sub-culture and fashion in Tokyo, through the eyes of a person who is in the thick of it, both physically and emotionally. The book encompasses the transience and permanence of his personal relationships and the physical flow of existence in one of the world’s busiest and concrete cities. He tries to create works that cannot be caught by fixed ideas. For example, He tries not to take the method that I have done once as much as possible. Every time Motohiko thinks that it is very important for him to challenge something new for himself. He believes that fashions, portraits, and landscapes are all positioned in the documentary, so this is his favorite genre. In other words, Motohiko thinks that it is impossible to take good fashion photographs unless documentaries are made. If the picture is good, retouching can be done with the minimum necessary, and hence it can be in the photograph instead of the graphic. He would like to compete with pictures. at last, Motohiko believes that if the photographs themselves are powerful, fashion photographs can be taken with the trend of documentaries.

BREAKFAST OR DINNER

Dinner;

Are you a night owls person?

Yes.

What is your typical night Like?

Relaxing at home.

What do you have for dinner?

Rice and Miso soup along with fish or meat dishes and tofu. Very typical Japanese meal…

What are your favorite breakfast places?

My atelier.

Do you travel a lot?

Yes.