David Favrod – Gaijin
Posted by Fabio 30 January 2012
Photographer David «Takashi» Favrod, was born on the 2nd of July 1982 in Kobe, Japan, of a Japanese mother and a Swiss father. When he was 6 months old, his parents decided to move and live in Switzerland, more precisely in Vionnaz, a little village in lower Valais. As his father had to travel for his work a lot, David was mainly brought up by his mother who taught him her principles and her culture.
When he was 18, he asked for double nationality at the Japanese embassy, but they refused, because it is only given to Japanese women who wish to obtain their husband’s nationality. It is from this feeling of rejection and also from a desire to prove that he is as Japanese as he is Swiss that this work was created.
“Gaijin” (a japanese word meaning “the foreigner”), is a fictional narrative, a tool for my quest for identity, where self-portraits imply an intimate and solitary relationship that I have with myself. The mirror image is frozen in a figurative alter ego that serves as an anchor point. The aim of this work is to create “my own Japan”, in Switzerland, from memories of my journeys when I was small, my mother’s stories, popular and traditional culture and my grandparents war narratives.”
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