In the springtime, in Venice, I met a woman. As if drawn together by destiny, I moved to Paris where she lived. Before long, however, she fell ill and eventually succumbed to death. It was the summertime, four years after we first met. Every moment we shared together, and everything she gave me, now forms a part of my life. Her departure teaches me to treasure the things I see every day, I know now they are not endless. We are sometimes destined to meet someone. It is as if we remember the promise our souls have made before we were born. Two of us come together at the same time at the same spot to fulfill the promise which we have no means to know about. We together confirmed our true selves through our encounters and the time we spent together. Who am I? Where am I from and where am I going? We needed each other in order to make sense of ourselves.

Losing Triny made me started working on the compilation of this work. Composing the work basically in chronological order--from first encounter at Venice, our life in Paris, our trips, fighting the disease and bereavement, to my revisit to Venice--, I focused on how each photo would represent a feeling of connection to each other. At the same time, I tried to express a connection between the past and now as a whole impression by placing a photo taken after her death in between the photos taken while she was still alive. To remember the memory of the moment our relationship started, I visited Venice once again to shoot the photos, which then were added to my work. Why do people meet someone? Why do we die and how can we face the rest of our life after a loved one dies? This compilation of photos is not to give the answer. The work rather puts a question to those who see it, and I created it with intention of giving a similar experience they might have in certain moments of life to somehow feel connected with my work.

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Arimasa Fukukawa (website)