The Window as Intermediary

Wanting to stay anonymous but still seeking a form of collaboration with her subjects, Shizuka Yokomizo sent letters to the residents of randomly selected apartments in London, Tokyo, Stockholm, Berlin, Paris, and New York. She suggested a particular time when they could stand framed in their front window while she photographed them from the street. In each photograph the window acts as an intermediary that makes possible a momentary, contractual confrontation with a person while both sides remain strangers.

Image: Shizuka Yokomizo, Stranger (15), 1998 - 2000. © Shizuka Yokomizo, Courtesy The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.