What if you passed a younger version of yourself on the street but didn’t even know you were there? Visual artist Chino Otsuka explores this and other themes in her photo series Imagine Finding Me. Using double self portraits as a mode of self reflection, Otsuka transposes recent images of herself onto her photographs from younger days. In these portraits her older self meets her younger self in settings that are neither past nor present.
“The digital process becomes a tool, almost like a time machine, as I’m embarking on the journey to where I once belonged and at the same time becoming a tourist in my own history,” Otsuka tells the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). Born in Japan, Otsuka moved to the UK at age 10 and has since felt she exists in a constant state of flux where there is no one place she belongs. She expresses this emotion in the settings of her double self portraits, which take place in transitional locations like bridges and hotel rooms.
Otsuka’s Imagine Finding Me series is her most exhibited work, showing in over 14 countries. She was named a finalist for the AIMIA|AGO Photography Prize 2013. Inspired by her work? Check out Otsuka’s book Photo Album: Chino Otsuka.
1975 and 2005, Spain
1975 and 2009, Pont des Arte France
1976 and 2005, Kamakura, Japan
1979 and 2006, Kitakamakura, Japan
1982 and 2005, Paris, France
1984 and 2005, London, UK
1984 and 2005, Richmond Hotel, France
1985 and 2005, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China
Images by Chino Otsuka
via Demilked