This series is an attempt to bring a deeper perspective on the Maiko (a Geisha apprentice) existing as a facet of Japanese femininity. Suffering from a surface level of understanding, Maiko are beings far beyond appearances. Their essence is in the making: they learn, they bloom. They personify animistic metamorphoses, mimicking the seasons with their kimonos, hairstyles, songs, dances ... They artistically mirror the ephemeral composition of human existence.
Iconic, fantasized, living history, they are however not a « vanishing world », they are ephemeral. It is neither a « forbidden world », they are intimate living beings. They are also way beyond the simple traditional modernity template: Maiko deeply interact within the context of the reconfiguration of femininity in progress in Japan. They are an inherent part of the society as models and confidantes.
These images speak about their metamorphoses; their identity as a “living art formâ€; the encompassment they embody; the contrasting relationships of femininity models; and the future of Maiko in a modern consumerist society. And, as an occidental photographer, they are simultaneously a selflessness and a self-awareness: I am going with them through the mirror they use to make up and transform, possessing my own visual grammar and fantasies.
With the imaginary journey they made into Western world, we could share a renewal of perspective, in a deeper attempt to understand the unique relation they hold to femininity, gender issues and our genuine human condition: a native sense of immediacy and a strange feeling of permanency.